University  of  California. 


SHEEP    HUSBANDRY 


IN 


THE    SOUTH 


PREPARED  AT  THE  REQUEST  OF  HON.  ALEXANDER  H. 
STEPHENS,  OF  GEORGIA,  AND  OTHERS. 


BY 

JOHN  L.   HAYES, 

SECRETARY  OF  THE  NATIONAL  ASSOCIATION  OF  WOOL  MANUFACTURERS. 


UNIVERSITY 


REPRINTED  FROM  THE  BULLETIN   OF  THE   NATIONAL  ASSOCIATION   OF 
WOOL  MANUFACTURERS. 


BOSTON: 

PRESS    OF   JOHN    WILSON    AND    SON. 

1878. 


SF375 
H3 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 
LETTER  OF  HON.  ALEXANDER  H.  STEPHENS,  GEN.  J.  B.  GORDON, 

AND    OTHERS  .       .      . 1 

TYPICAL  SOUTHERN  STATES. 

v 

CLIMATE 6 

HEALTH  OF  SHEEP  AT  THE  SOUTH 7 

EFFECT  OF  CLIMATE  ON  THE  WOOL-PRODUCING  QUALITIES  OF 

SHEEP 7 

THE  CULTURE  OF  ELECTORAL  SHEEP  RECOMMENDED  ....  13 

RESOURCES  IN  THE  SOUTH  FOR  THE  NUTRITION  OF  SHEEP  .  .  14 

THE  GRASSES:  BERMUDA,  &c. 16 

FORAGE  PLANTS  ;  ALFALFA,  PEAS,  TURNIPS,  &c 20 

PRESENT  CONDITION  OF  SOUTHERN  SHEEP  HUSBANDRY  ...  23 

THE  COURSE  RECOMMENDED  FOR  THE  SOUTH 29 

SHEEP  FOR  MIXED  HUSBANDRY 31 

THE  CULTURE  OF  LONG-WOOLED  SHEEP  AND  OTHER  LANIGEROUS 

ANIMALS 41 

KENTUCKY  SHEEP  43 

THE  ANGORA  GOAT 51 

TEXAS. 

STATEMENTS  OF  MR.  SHAEFFER 63 

ADVICE  TO  EMIGRANTS 73 

OBSTACLES  TO  SHEEP-GROWING  IN  TEXAS 75 

NUMBER  OF  SHEEP  IN  SOUTHERN  STATES 77 

NUMBER  OF  SHEEP  IN  NORTHERN  AND  WESTERN  STATES  ...  78 


CONTENTS. 


GENERAL  CONSIDERATIONS. 

PAGE 

RELATIONS  OF  WOOL-PRODUCTION  TO  CUSTOMS  DUTIES      ...  78 

ADJUSTMENT  OF  DUTIES  ON  MANUFACTURES  TO  DUTIES  ON  WOOL  80 

AMERICAN  MILLS  THE  ONLY  MARKET  FOR  DOMESTIC  WOOL   .     .  81 

WOOL-GROWERS'  ASSOCIATIONS 81 

SHEEP  HUSBANDRY  BY  THE  COLORED  POPULATION 83 

QUESTION  OF  OVER-PRODUCTION  OF  WOOL 85 


APPENDIX. 

LETTER  OF  GEN.  JOHN  A.  YOUNG,  OF  NORTH  CAROLINA  ...    89 
,,        ,,    COL.  J.  WASH  WATTS,  OF  SOUTH  CAROLINA    ...    95 

,,        ,,    COL.  RICHARD  PETERS,  OF  GEORGIA 99 

„        ,,    CHARLES  N.  JENKS,  OF  TEXAS 103 

EXTRACT  FROM  FORTHCOMING  REPORT  OF  THE  COMMISSIONER  OF 

AGRICULTURE  OF  TENNESSEE       ....         105 


V 

UNIVERSITY 


SHEEP  HUSBANDRY  IN   THE    SOUTH, 


THE  appreciative  request  by  which  the  writer  of  this  paper 
has  been  honored  *  has  only  hastened  the  execution  of  a 
work  which  he  has  for  a  long  time  contemplated,  and  is  but 
a  continuation  of  an  inquiry  as  to  our  national  wool  resources 
already  pursued  in  regard  to  the  Pacific  and  trans-Missouri 
sections  of  the  country.  In  preparing  an  article  on  wool- 


*  WASHINGTON,  D.C.,  Dec.  10,  1877. 
JOHN  L.  HAYES,  Esq.,  Secretary  of  the 

National  Association  of  Wool  Manufacturers,  Boston,  Mass. 

SIR,  —  In  the  numbers  of  the  "  Bulletin,"  —  published  as  the  organ  of  your 
Association  —  for  December,  1876,  and  September,  1877,  appear  two  articles 
from  your  pen,  entitled,  "  The  Part  of  the  Wool  Industry  in  our  National  Econ- 
omy/' and  "  Wool  Production  and  Sheep  Husbandry." 

The  interest  called  forth  in  us  by  the  perusal  of  these  papers  has  been 
deepened  by  the  reading  of  the  Report  upon  Wool  and  Wool  Fabrics,  made  by 
you  as  one  of  the  group  of  judges  in  the  late  International  Exposition,  which 
you  were  officially  requested  to  prepare. 

While  very  much  has  been  written  upon  this  question,  relative  to  the  advan- 
tages of  the  North,  the  West,  and  the  Pacific  slope,  we  feel  that  the  special 
inducements  of  "  the  South  "  have  not  been  recently  presented  by  any  influ- 
ential authority,  like  that  you  represent. 

As  the  objects  of  your  Association  are  national  in  their  character,  we  believe 
the  proposition  will  meet  your  approval,  if  we  suggest  that  you  prepare  a  paper 
upon  "  Sheep  Husbandry  and  Wool  Production  in  the  South,"  for  publication 
in  your  Journal,  and  also  for  general  distribution. 

Being  residents  of,  and  therefore  specially  interested  in,  that  section  of  the 
country,  we  believe  that  an  authoritative  setting-forth  of  the  great  advantages 
it  presents  for  this  industry,  by  your  Association,  will  give  a  great  impulse  to 

1 


2  SHEEP    HUSBANDRY    IN   THE   SOUTH. 

growing  in  the  last-named  region,  we  had  to  meet,  at  the  out- 
set, the  objection  that  the  encouragement  of  wool-production 
on  the  cheap-grazing  lands  m  the  far  West  involves  the  aban- 
donment of  sheep  husbandry  in  the  older  States  of  the  North 
and  East ;  and  that  what  the  far  West  gains,  Vermont  and 
Ohio  would  lose.  This  objection,  we  said,  if  it  were  true,  is 
a  local,  not  a  national,  one. 

"  The  aim  of  a  national  industrial  system  is  the  wealth, 
grandeur,  and  independence  of  the  nation  as  a  whole ;  and 
of  the  comfort,  elevation,  and  well-compensated  labor  of  the 
American  people  as  a  whole.  Above  all  things,  it  abhors 
monopolies  of  individuals,  States,  or  sections.  It  does  not 
favor  the  exclusive  occupation  of  the  cotton  manufacture  by 
Massachusetts  or  Rhode  Island,  but  would  plant  it  also  by 
the  side  of  the  cotton-fields  in  Georgia  and  Mississippi.  It 
would  light  furnace  fires  in  Michigan,  Ohio,  and  Alabama,  as 
well  as  in  Pennsylvania.  Statesmanship  would  have  our 
national  industrial  system  advance  in  its  march  like  one  of 


all  interests  there  ;  while  it  will  also  be  of  much  aid  and  value  to  the  reader  and 
capitalist  from  any  quarter. . 

In  the  hope  you  may  be  induced  to  render  the  service  we  desire,  and  assur- 
ing you  of  any  aid  we  may  be  able  to  give  you  in  furtherance  of  that  result, 
we  are  very  truly  yours,  &c., 

ALEXANDER  H.  STEPHENS,  M.  C.  of  Ga. 

J.  B.  GORDON,  U.  S.  S. 

BENJ.  H.  HILL,  U.  S.  S. 

JOHN  T.  MORGAN,  U.  S.  S. 

M.  W.  RANSOM,  U.  S.  S. 

JOHN  W.  JOHNSTON,  U.  S.  S. 

RICHARD  COKE,  U.  S.  S. 

L.  Q.  C.  LAMAR,  U.  S.  S. 

WADE  HAMPTON,  Governor  of  So.  Car. 

I  have  not  had  the  pleasure  of  reading  the  articles  referred  to  ;  but,  as  Texas 
is  most  largely  interested  in  wool-growing,  I  trust  the  articles  suggested  will  be 
prepared.  S.  B.  MAXEY,  U.  S.  S. 

With  great  interest  in  the  subject,  and  beg  to  add  my  signature, 

T.  F.  BAYARD,  U.  S.  S. 
R.  L.  GIBSON,  M.  C.  of  La. 

I  join  in  the  above.  Wool-growing  is  one  of  the  leading  interests  of  my 
district,  —  Western  Texas.  G.  SCHLEICHER,  M.  C. 


SHEEP   HUSBANDRY  IN  THE   SOUTH.  3 

our  grand  national  railroads ;  which  must  not  stop  for  fear 
that  the  town  which  has  sprung  up  on  its  route  may  be 
eclipsed  by  another,  and  yet  another,  which  springs  up  as  it 
advances.  It  must  march  on  until  it-  spans  the  continent ; 
although,  when  it  reaches  its  western  verge,  San  Francisco 
may  be  compelled  to  divide  her  trade  with  Chicago.  To  say 
that  the  production  of  the  new  State  will  compete  with  that 
of  the  old,  and  that  new  industries  will  vie  with  those  long 
established,  is  to  state  the  principal  object  of  the  national 
system.  Domestic  competition,  with  its  accruing  cheapness, 
excellence,  and  abundance  of  production,  neutralizes  the  ap- 
parent taxation  imposed  under  the  protective  system.  Domes- 
tic competition,  gradual,  equable,  and  healthful,  —  and  not, 
like  foreign  competition,  spasmodic,  irregular,  and  incapable 
of  being  guarded  against,  and  hence  disastrous,  —  lifts  the 
industries  from  their  old  ruts,  introduces  economies,  labor- 
saving  machines  and  processes,  compels  a  constant  watchful- 
ness for  the  popular  tastes  and  necessities,  and  an  incessant 
activity  for  superior  cheapness  or  excellence,  and  thus  con- 
verts protection  from  a  tax  to  a  boon.  It  is  only  when  the 
nation  blushes  to  own  each  new  star  which  she  adds  to  her 
banner,  that  she  will  regret  the  competition  in  industry  which 
each  new  State  makes  with  the  old." 

As  then  at  the  East  writing  of  the  far  West,  so  now  at  the 
East  writing  of  the  South,  we  pursue  the  subject  in  the 
interest  of  the  national  wool  industry,  and  not  of  a  section. 
Still,  while  free  from  sectional  predilections,  we  cannot  divest 
ourselves  of  sympathy  for  a  people  emerging  from  the  over- 
throw of  a  cherished  social  system,  and  struggling  for  the 
higher  and  broader  industrial  life  to  which  recent  events  have 
forced  them;  and  cannot  but  take . pleasure  in  pointing  out 
some  of  the  means  which  offer  for  settling  their  waste  and 
restoring  their  impoverished  lands,  for  employing  their  labor 
and  diversifying  their  industries. 

Although  sheep  were  early  introduced  into  Georgia,  and 
flourished  to  such  a  degree,  during  the  colonial  period,  that 
their  wool  was  commended  by  British  travellers  to  the  Eng- 
lish clothiers  as  "  equal  to  the  Spanish,  and  superior  to  that 


4  SHEEP   HUSBANDRY  IN  THE  SOUTH. 

grown  in  England ;  "  although  General  Washington  intro- 
duced the  New  Leicesters  at  Mount  Vernon,  the  influence  of 
whose  progeny  is  still  seen'  in  the  excellent  mutton  of  that 
section  of  Virginia,  and,  further,  so  inspired  Colonel  Hum- 
phreys, who  resided  for  a  time  at  Mount  Vernon,  with  a  love 
of  sheep,  that  he  subsequently,  while  minister  to  Spain,  became 
the  introducer  of  the  merino  to  this  country ;  and  although 
Mr.  Jefferson  sent  the  progeny  of  the  merinos  presented  to 
him,  by  Mr.  Jarvis,  to  the  counties  adjoining  Monticello,  as 
the  choicest  boon  he  could  offer  to  the  agriculture  of  Virginia, 
—  the  breeding  of  sheep  fell,  at  length,  into  general  disrepute 
at  the  South,  as  is  evinced  by  the  contemptuous  remark  at- 
tributed to  the  statesman  of  Roanoke.  This  prejudice,  accord- 
ing to  Colonel  Skinner,  was  nourished  by  the  popular  essays 
of  "  Arator,"  —  the  celebrated  Col.  John  Taylor.  It  was  more 
probably  due  to  a  jealousy  of  any  product  which  might  vie 
with  the  exclusive  monopoly  of  cotton,  to  which  sectional 
pride  gave  a  regal  title.  At  all  events,  sheep  husbandry 
became  generally  unpopular  throughout  the  South,  —  except, 
near  the  great  cities,  for  a  supply  of  mutton  and  lambs,  — 
and  was  supposed  to  be  attended  with  difficulties  peculiar 
to  the  Southern  climate  and  soil.  This  remark  does  not 
apply  to  Western  Virginia,  where  merino-sheep  husbandry 
has  been  pursued  since  the  first  importation  of  the  race,  with 
a  success  unsurpassed  in  any  Northern  States  ;  nor  to  Texas, 
where  the  pursuit  was  attaining  a  great  importance,  until 
checked  by  the  war ;  neither  to  a  limited  number  of  indi- 
viduals, like  Mr.  Cockerill,  of  Tennessee,  Mr.  Peters,  of 
Georgia,  and  Colonel  Watts,  of  South  Carolina,  who  have 
exhibited  unusual  energy  and  intelligence  in  the  pursuit. 
Neither  is  it  to  be  supposed  that  the  number  of  sheep  was 
by  any  means  inconsiderable :  for  there  were  upwards  of  six 
hundred  thousand  sheep  in  the  five  most  southerly  States,  in 
1839  ;  but  the  sheep  were  poor  in  quality,  and  but  little 
cared  for. 

The  first  systematic  attempt  to  remove  this  prejudice  was 
made  about  1847,  by  Hon.  Henry  S.  Randall,  LL.D.,  — since 
so  celebrated  as  the  author  of  the  "  Practical  Shepherd,"  — 


SHEEP   HUSBANDRY   IN    THE   SOUTH.  5 

who  published  in  the  "Farmer's  Library,"  at  the  request  of 
Col.  J.  S.  Skinner,  a  series  of  letters  addressed  to  Col.  R.  F. 
Allston,  of  South  Carolina,  on  sheep  husbandry  in  the  South. 
These  letters  were  collected  and  published  in  a  separate 
book,  in  1860,  by  Orange  Judd  &  Co.,  of  New  York.  This 
work,  by  so  high  an  authority  and  a  writer  so  accomplished, 
makes  us  hesitate  to  undertake  our  task.  It  seems  pre- 
sumptuous to  attempt  to  glean  from  a  field  which  has  been 
so  thoroughly  reaped  and  garnered.  But  as  the  precedence 
of  Dr.  Randall,  and  the  short  space  to  which  our  pages  limit 
us,  reduce  our  work  to  scarcely  more  than  one  of  annotation 
and  condensation,  we  have  less  diffidence  in  attempting  it, 
especially  since  we  shall  be  at  least  the  means  of  introducing 
some  fresh  and  original  matter  from  high  authorities  on  sheep- 
breeding  at  the  South. 

That  a  new  field  for  sheep  husbandry  is  about  to  be  opened 
at  the  South,  is  shown  less  by  what  has  been  as  yet  accom- 
plished, than  by  a  complete  change  in  popular  opinion  in  that 
section  as  to  the  desirability  of  extending  this  industry  within 
its  borders.  No  stronger  evidence  of  that  change  could  be 
presented  than  the  request  of  so  many  distinguished  states- 
men of  the  South  that  the  claims  of  Southern  sheep  hus- 
bandry should  receive  the  special  consideration  of  the  National 
Association  of  Wool  Manufacturers.  Personal  interviews 
with  many  of  these  gentlemen  have  assured  us  that  it  is  their 
earnest  conviction,  that  no  industry  at  present  offers  for  their 
section  such  advantages  in  return  for  capital  invested,  and 
general  improvement  of  the  country  in  question,  as  sheep 
husbandry.  As  other  indications  of  the  change  in  popular 
opinion,  we  may  state  that  the  Commissioner  of  Agriculture 
of  the  State  of  Georgia,  holding  an  office  recently  created, 
presented,  as  his  first  official  document,  a  report  on  the  sheep 
husbandry  of  the  State  ;  and  that  the  State  Agricultural 
Association  of  Georgia  has  recently  addressed  a  memorial 
to  Congress,  protesting  against  any  reduction  of  the  existing 
duties  protective  of  the  wool  production  of  the  country, — . 
the  first  instance,  it  is  said,  of  similar  action  in  the  history  of 
the  State.  The  question  whether  the  prevailing  popular 


6 


SHEEP   HUSBANDRY   IN   THE   SOUTH. 


opinion  at  the  South  in  relation  to  the  advantages  of  wool 
production  of  and  sheep  husbandry  in  that  section  is  well 
founded,  is  the  direct  object  of  our  inquiry. 

This  question  is  one  of  comparison.  If  sheep  husbandry 
may  be  pursued  more  cheaply,  and  as  advantageously  in  other 
respects,  at  the  South,  as  in  the  present  principal  seats  of  the 
industry,  it  is  merely  a.  question  of  time,  or  of  the  diffusion 
of  knowledge,  when  the  fields  of  the  South  will  compete 
with  the  flock  pastures  of  the  North  and  West ;  or,  rather, 
when  capital  and  animals  will  be  transferred  from  their  pres- 
ent seats  to  others  at  the  South,  where  wool  production  is 
cheaper  and  more  advantageous.  The  comparison  must  be 
first  made  in  respect  to  only  one  branch  of  sheep  husbandry, 
—  that  of  the  pastoral  or  merino  sheep  husbandry ;  that  de- 
signed for  wool  production  chiefly,  —  mutton-sheep  husbandry 
being  subject  to  different  conditions,  which  must  be  con- 
sidered separately. 

Climate.  —  The  most  important  relation  of  the  climate  of 
the  North  to  sheep-growing  is  exhibited  by  the  following 
table,  drawn  from  the  reports  of  the  Department  of  Agricul- 
ture, exhibiting  the  number  of  months  of  full  and  partial 
feeding  in  the  States  named,  made  necessary  by  the  severity 
of  the  climate  :  — 


STATES. 

Number  of  months  of 
full  feeding. 

Number  of  months  of 
partial  feeding. 

6 

H 

New  Hampshire                  

6 

u 

"Vermont           

6 

u 

New  York    

5| 

2 

5 

2 

Ohio              .                        .... 

44- 

2 

A  much  greater  range  in  the  requirements  for  winter  feed- 
ing is  found  at  the  South.  The  months  for  full  feeding  in 
Virginia  are  set  down  at  four,  and  for  partial  feeding  at  two. 
The  time  diminishes  in  both  respects  as  we  go  South,  until 
in  southern  Georgia  full  feeding  is  required  only  during  occa- 
sional storms,  and  partial  feeding  from  two  to  three  months. 


SHEEP    HUSBANDRY    IN   THE   SOUTH.  7 

The  next  point  of  inquiry  is  the  relation  of  climate  to  the 
health  and  wool-producing  capacity  of  the  sheep.  The  effect 
of  the  climate  of  the  North  in  these  respects  is  admitted  to 
be  favorable. 

Health  of  Sheep  at  the  South.  —  Dr.  Randall  has  given  this 
branch  of  the  subject  minute  attention.  After  enumerating 
the  many  thousand  sheep  existing  in  1839  in  districts  of  the 
extreme  South,  on  the  borders  of  the  Okefenokee  Swamp 
and  the  borders  of  the  Gulf,  and  even  the  delta  of  the  Mis 
sissippi,  he  says :  — 

"  No  portion  of  the  United  States  is  lower,  hotter,  or  more  unhealthy 
than  much  of  the  preceding ;  and  none,  according  to  commonly-received 
notions,  would  be  more  unsuited  to  the  healthy  production  of  sheep. 
Yet  that  they  are  healthy  in  these  situations  is  a  matter  of  perfect 
notoriety  to  all  conversant  with  the  facts.  So  far  as  health  is  con- 
cerned, then,  we  are  assuredly  authorized  to  assume  the  position,  that 
no  portion  of  the  United  States  is  too  warm  for  sheep." 

Effect  of  Climate  on  the  Wool-producing  Qualities  of  the 
Animal.  —  Upon  this  point,  Dr.  Randall  thus  sums  up  his 
conclusions :  — 

'*  My  convictions  are  decided,  and  the  facts  reported  appear  to  fully 
sustain  them,  that  warmth  of  temperature,  at  least  to  a  point  equal- 
ling the  highest  mean  temperature  in  the  United  States,  is  not  inju- 
rious, but  absolutely  conducive,  to  the  production  of  wool.  The  causes 
of  this  are  involved  in  no  mystery.  Warm  climates  afford  green  and 
succulent  herbage  during  a  greater  portion  of  the  year  than  cold  ones. 
Sheep  plentifully  supplied  with  green  herbage  keep  in  a  higher  condi- 
tion than  when  confined  to  that  which  is  dry.  High  condition  promotes 
those  secretions  which  form  wool.  Every  one  at  all  conversant  with 
sheep  well  knows  that,  if  kept  fleshy  all  the  year  round,  they  produce 
far  more  wool  than  if  kept  poor.  A  half  a  pound's  difference  per  head 
is  readily  made  in  this  way.  Within  the  maximum  and  minimum  of 
the  product  of  a  sheep  or  a  flock,  the  ratio  of  production  always  coin- 
cides with  that  condition." 

Some  other  facts,  not  referred  to  by  the  author,  illustrative 
of  the  beneficial  influence  of  warm  climates  upon  the  merino- 
sheep  husbandry,  which  we  have  now  specially  in  view,  may 


8  SHEEP  HUSBANDRY  IN    THE   SOUTH. 

be  here  stated.  M.  Moll,  the  distinguished  scientific  reporter 
on  Wool  at  the  Paris  Exposition  of  1867,  says :  "  We  observe 
that  it  is  the  vine  and  mulberry  which  best  suits  the  ovine 
species  in  general,  and  the  fine-woolled  races  in  particular." 
It  need  not  be  remarked  that  the  more  southerly  States 
emphatically  belong  to  the  vine-bearing  zone.  The  great 
merino  wool-clip  of  the  world  is  produced  in  even  warmer 
latitudes.  The  Argentine  Republic,  standing  second  in 
the  world  in  the  supply  of  the  wools  of  commerce,  —  having 
57,501,260  sheep,  producing  216,000,000  Ibs.,  —  has  a  climate 
where  the  cold  of  winter  is  so  moderate  as  to  produce  no 
more  severe  effects  than  slight  hoar-frosts,  which  disappear 
with  the  morning's  sun.  Its  wools,  chiefly  merino,  are  fine 
and  soft ;  having,  as  their  principal  defect,  the  burr  clinging 
to  the  fleece,  derived  from  the  white  medoc  or  clover,  on 
which  the  sheep  feed,  unfortunately  in  that  country  insep- 
arably connected  with  the  productive  lands  and  best  pas- 
turage. The  most  productive  merino-wool  regions  in  Europe 
are  the  southern  provinces  of  the  Russian  Empire,  where  the 
climate  is  so  mild  that  the  sheep  require  shelter  and  fodder 
only  about  six  weeks  in  winter.  Single  flocks  in  that  country 
reach  to  fifty,  seventy-five,  a  hundred  thousand,  and  even 
four  hundred  thousand  head.  Specimens  of  merino  wools 
from  this  region,  shown  at  the  Centennial  Exhibition,  in  fine- 
ness and  extreme  length  of  staple  surpassed  any  exhibited. 
Mr.  Graham,  author  of  the  most  accepted  handbook  of  the 
sheep  husbandry  of  Australia,  asserts  that  "  The  '  Salt-bush ' 
country  in  New  South  Wales,  a  region  of  excessive  heat,  can 
and  does  in  some  instances  produce  as  heavy  and  valuable 
wool  as  do  any  other  portions  of  the  Australian  colonies.  It 
was  the  received  dictum,  in  1845,  that  the  climate  of  the 
Darling  Downs,  within  the  tropics,  was  too  hot  for  the  growth 
of  wool.  The  Superintendent  of  the  Clyde  Company  thought 
otherwise,  and  adopted  a  careful  and  judicious  system  of 
selection.  In  eight  or  nine  years,  the  Darling  Downs  pro- 
duced as  good  wool  as  any  grown  in  Australia,  although  it 
still  bore  the  name  of  hot-country  wool." 

To  the  Northern  farmer,  accustomed  to  see  his  sheep  and 


SHEEP   HUSBANDRY  IN  THE  SOUTH.  9 

cattle  suffering  and  refusing  nourishment  during  periods  of 
excessive  heat  in  the  Northern  summers,  it  may  seem  incon- 
ceivable that  sheep  should  not  be  unfavorably  affected  by 
the  hot  summers  of  the  South.  But  it  should  be  remembered 
that  the  summer  heat  of  the  South  is  tempered  by  the  breezes 
blowing  from  the  Gulf;  and  that,  at  New  York,  in  midsum- 
mer, the  days  are  very  nearly  one  hour  longer  than  at  Savan- 
nah, and  the  nights  correspondingly  shorter :  consequently, 
at  New  York,  there  is  one  hour  longer  for  the  heat  to  accu- 
mulate from  the  direct  rays  of  the  sun,  and  one  hour  less  time 
in  the  night  for  the  accumulated  heat  to  be  carried  off  by 
radiation.  From  these  two  causes,  the  summer  heat  is  never 
so  excessive  in  Southern  as  in  Northern  latitudes. 

But  it  is  asserted  that  warmth  of  climate,  while  promoting 
the  quantity  of  wool  produced,  enlarges  the  fibre,  making 
the  wool  coarser.  This  was  the  opinion  of  Dr.  Randall,  and 
is  still  generally  adopted.  He  says :  "  There  can  be  but  little 
doubt  that  the  pelage  of  the  sheep  becomes  finer  in  cold 
climates,  and  coarser  in  warm  ones."  He  sees  the  causes  of 
this  phenomenon  in  the  greater  amount  and  quality  of  the 
nutriment  received  by  the  animal  in  warm  climates,  which 
maintain  in  greater  activity  those  secretions  which  form  wool, 
and  that  increase  the  quantity  and  weight  of  the  fleece. 
The  weight,  he  thinks  is  increased  by  increasing  the  length 
and  thickness  of  the  separate  fibres ;  just  as  plants  put 
forth  longer  and  thicker  stems  on  rich  soils  than  poor  ones. 

The  popular  belief  that  wool  becomes  coarser  in  warm 
climates  is  strengthened  by  the  admitted  fact,  that  sheep, 
originally  covered  with  hair  and  an  undergrowth  of  wool, 
when  introduced  into  very  hot  climates  within  the  tropics  in 
time  become  covered  with  hair  alone ;  the  wool,  as  is  sup- 
posed, being  converted  into  hair.  This  supposition  is  not 
correct.  The  wool  part  of  the  fleece  is  not  changed :  it  is 
lost.  Mr.  George  W.  Bond,  an  eminent  expert  in  wool,  has 
recently  exhibited,  to  a  scientific  society,  skins  of  Arabian 
sheep,  some  of  them  covered  with  hair  alone,  and  others 
having  similar  hair,  but  with  a  thick  undergrowth  of  wool. 
The  fibre  of  the  wool  proved  by  test  to  be  equal  to  that  of 

2 


10  SHEEP  HUSBANDRY  IN  THE  SOUTH. 

the  very  finest  Saxony  wool.  The  fibre  of  the  wool  proper, 
then,  is  not  changed  or  enlarged  by  climate. 

But  this  question,  it  would  seem,  has  been  finally  put  at 
rest  by  the  carefully  conducted  experiments  of  Professor  San- 
son,  the  most  eminent  zootechnist  in  France ;  published  in 
the  Comptes  rendus  of  the  French  Academy, — such  a  publica- 
tion by  that  body  being  in  itself  a  sufficient  indorsement  of 
Professor  Sanson's  scientific  authority.  The  importance  of 
the  observations  justifies  us  in  giving  at  length  a  large  part 
of  Professor  Sanson's  note  to  his  table  of  experiments,  given 
by  him  in  detail.  His  researches  were  made  upon  twenty 
specimens  of  wool.  The  animals  from  which  the  wool-fibres 
examined  were  derived,  he  calls  "  precocious  "  merinos  ;  that 
is,  animals  so  bred  and  highly  fed  as  to  produce  the  utmost 
weight  of  fleece  and  flesh :  the  race  having,  besides,  the 
quality  of  maturing  early.  He  says :  — 

"  It  is  generally  admitted,  from  reasoning  a  priori,  that  the 
rapidity  of  growth  in  precocious  merinos,  due  to  the  abun- 
dance and  special  qualities  of  nourishment,  cannot  fail  to 
increase  the  size  of  the  hairs  of  the  same  wool.  I  have  pro- 
posed to  determine  scientifically  the  truth  of  this  induction." 
After  stating  his  experiments  and  manner  of  conducting 
them,  he  considers  certain  propositions  demonstrated ;  among 
which  are  the  following :  — 

"  1.  The  precocious  development  of  merino  sheep,  having  the  effect 
to  carry  their  aptitude  to  produce  flesh  to  the  highest  degree  that  sheep 
can  attain,  exercises  no  influence  on  the  fineness  of  their  wool.  This 
preserves  the  diameter  which  it  would  have,  had  it  developed  in  normal 
conditions,  for  the  reason  that  this  diameter  depends  upon  the  indi- 
vidual and  hereditary  aptitudes. 

"  2.  The  influence  exercised  by  the  precocious  development  upon 
the  hair  of  the  wool  exhibits  itself  by  an  augmentation  of  the  length 
of  the  same  hair  ;  its  growth,  resulting  from  the  formation  of  epidermic 
cellules  in  the  hair  bulb,  being  more  active.  There  is,  therefore,  more 
woolly  substance  produced  in  the  same  time. 

"  3.  The  precocious  development  does  not  vary  the  number  of  hair 
or  wool  bulbs  existing  for  a  determinate  extent  of  the  surface  of  the 
skin.  It  produces,  therefore,  no  change  in  what  is  vulgarly  called  the 


SHEEP  HUSBANDRY  IN  THE  SOUTH.  11 

tasse  (density  of  staple).  The  modifications  which  the  staple  of  wool 
presents  in  this  respect  are  only  apparent.  By  increasing  the  length  of 
the  hairs,  the  precocity  necessarily  increases  that  of  the  locks  of  wool 
which  they  form,  which  makes  the  fleece  appear  less  dense." 

The  views  here  presented,  we  admit,  would  not  be  accepted 
by  the  majority  of  our  breeders.  But  all  will  admit  that  any 
tendency  of  warm  climates  (if  such  exists)  to  make  wool 
coarser  can  be  easily  counteracted  by  judicious  breeding. 

In  connection  with  the  question  of  the  effect  of  climate  on 
the  fineness  of  wool  fibre,  we  may  appropriately  quote  a 
breeder  of  great  reputation  in  Tennessee,  but  whose  flocks 
were  in  Mississippi.  His  statement  is  old  ;  but  the  more  valu- 
able, since  the  culture  of  fine  Saxon  sheep  has  now  almost 
wholly  ceased  in  this  country.  Mr.  Mark  R.  Cockerill,  in  a 
letter  published  in  the  "  American  Farmer." 

"  I  have  about  1,000  head  of  fine  sheep.  .  .  .  My  Saxon  sheep  were 
imported  in  1824  or  1826,  —  I  cannot  say  which,  —  and  I  find  as  yet 
no  falling  off  in  the  quantity  or  quality  of  their  fleeces  :  on  the  contrary, 
I  believe,  a  little  improvement  in  both  points,  and  a  little  more  yolk 
when  well  provided  for ;  which,  you  know,  does  .not  much  abound  in  the 
Saxon  breed.  In  addition,  the  fleeces  are  a  little  more  compact  than 
formerly,  hence  more  weight ;  and,  from  our  mild  climate,  the  staple 
has  become  longer.  I  assert  that  the  cotton  region  I  am  now  in 
(Madison  County,  Mississippi),  in  about  32°  north,  is  better  than  any 
country  north  of  it,  to  grow  wool,  as  the  sheep  can  be  kept  all  the  time 
grazing,  by  sowing  small  grain  ;  for,  if  grazed  off,  it  quickly  grows  again 
in  a  few  days.  And  the  wool  of  the  fine  Saxon  sheep  in  this  climate  is 
softer  and  more  cotton-like  than  any  I  have  ever  seen,  although  I  have 
samples  from  all  parts  of  the  world.  I  have  travelled  from  this  very 
place  to  Boston,  sampling  all  the  sheep  of  note  on  the  way ;  and  I  have 
found  nothing  on  my  journey,  or  at  Boston,  as  good  as  the  wool  I  have 
grown ;  and  so  said  all  the  wool-staplers  whom  I  met  with,  and  they 
were  not  a  few.  I  presume,  in  reality,  that  the  blood  of  my  sheep  was 
no  better  than  many  I  saw  ;  but  the  superiority  of  my  wool  I  ascribe  to 
our  climate,  and  the  provision  for  the  sheep  of  succulent  food  the  year 
round." 

Having  examined  the  volume  of  awards  of  the  Exhibition 
at  London  of  1851,  commonly  called  the  World's  Fair,  we 


12  SHEEP   HUSBANDRY  IN  THE   SOUTH. 

find  that  the  reports  of  the  juries  recognize  the  German  wools 
as  the  finest  and  longest.  Two  prize  medals  of  the  same 
grade  given  to  the  German  exhibitors  were  awarded  to  ex- 
hibitors from  the  United  States.  The  awards  are  arranged 
in  the  order  of  merit.  The  first  is  given  to  Mr.  Cockerill. 
It  says :  "  The  wool  transmitted  by  the  exhibitor  from  Nash- 
ville is  well  got  up  ;  and  exhibits,  like  the  preceding  specimens 
(the  German),  a  quality  of  fibre  indicative  of  care  and  skill 
in  the  development  and  improvement  of  the  fleece,  which 
calls  for  the  award  of  the  prize  medal."  The  report  further 
says :  "  One  of  the  able  experts,  whose  valuable  aid  the  jury 
have  already  acknowledged,  reports, '  Those  shown  by  Amer- 
ica (United  States)  as  most  approximating  to  the  character 
of  German  wools.' ' 

Mr.  Howard,  of  Kingston,  Georgia,  writing  to  the  Depart- 
ment of  Agriculture,  in  1874,  says :  — 

"  It  is  objected  that  wool  degenerates  in  warm  climates,  and  becomes 
coarse  and  valueless.  This  is  an  error.  The  writer,  whose  flock  is 
of  the  Cockerill  merinos,  which  took  the  premium  at  the  World's  Fair 
in  London,  many  years  ago,  the  sheep  being  reared  in  Mississippi,  after 
this  lapse  of  time  is  now  ready  to  compete  with  any  wool  in  the  United 
States  in  fineness  of  staple." 

The  quality  of  extreme  fineness  in  wool  is  much  less  re- 
garded now  than  formerly,  on  account  of  the  changes  in  fashion 
of  fabrics.  The  great  bulk  of  wools  at  present  consumed  is 
of  medium  grades.  Length  of  staple,  however,  has  become 
a  very  desirable  attribute,  on  account  of  the  increased  demand 
throughout  the  world  for  wools  for  combing  purposes,  which 
enter  into  worsted  coatings  and  a  great  variety  of  dress  goods. 
This  quality  of  length  of  fibre,  it  is  seen,  is  greatly  favored  by 
the  propitious  climate  of  the  South.  As  our  manufacturers 
advance  to  the  production  of  the  higher  qualities  of  dress 
goods,  such  as  the  French  merinos  and  the  very  finest  grades 
of  worsted  coatings,  which  are  now  coming  into  demand, 
fineness  no  less  than  length  of  staple  would  be  demanded  for 
merino -combing  wools  ;  and,  for  both  of  these  qualities,  it  is 
shown  that  the  climate  of  the  South  is  favorable. 


SHEEP   HUSBANDRY  IN   THE   SOUTH.  13 

Culture  of  Electoral  Wools  recommended.  —  There  is  likely 
to  be  no  more  appropriate  place  than  in  this  connection  to 
speak  of  a  class  of  wools  whose  culture  has  almost  ceased  in 
this  country,  and  has  greatly  declined  throughout  the  world. 
We  refer  to  the  exceedingly  fine  electoral  wools,  such  as  were 
formerly  produced  by  the  old  Saxon  sheep,  and  at  present  by 
the  Silesian  sheep  of  the  same  or  a  very  similar  race.  They 
are  still  cultivated,  to  a  limited  extent,  in  Silesia,  Hungary, 
and  Poland,  which  countries  produce  all  the  superfine  wools 
used  in  Europe.  The  few  wools  of  this  class  used  here  are 
imported  from  these  countries,  at  enormous  prices.  Fashion, 
invariably  revolving  in  great  cycles,  always  repeats  herself  in 
time.  Superfine  broadcloths,  and  other  tissues  demanding 
the  finest  fibre,  will  again  be  in  vogue.  The  electoral  wools 
will  secure  prices,  as  they  have  never  yet  done,  proportionate 
to  their  high  cost  of  production.  On  account  of  the  delicacy 
of  the  animals  producing  them,  these  wools  cannot  be  suc- 
cessfully grown  at  the  North ;  as  we  know  personally  from 
observation  on  the  paternal  farm  in  Maine,  where  their  cul- 
ture was  formerly  attempted  with  the  utmost  energy,  but 
with  such  poor  results  as  to  cause  their  abandonment.  In 
the  mild  climate  of  the  South,  their  successful  culture  is 
assured  beyond  all  question.  This  is  proved  by  the  letter 
last  quoted.  Mr.  Watts,  of  South  Carolina,  in  his  communi- 
cation elsewhere  given  at  length,  says:  — 

"  I  have  now  on  my  table  a  Silesian  wool,  measuring,  say,  1,800 
hairs  to  the  inch,  which  cost  the  consumer  here  one  dollar  and  fifty 
cents  in  gold  per  pound.  With  none  of  the  ridiculously  extreme  care 
which  the  European  growers  of  the  electoral  wool  exercise  in  their 
flocks,  Mark  Cockerill,  of  Tennessee  (near  Nashville),  has  raised  Sax- 
ony wools  of  a  fineness  of  2,000  hairs  to  the  inch,  and  could  sell  it  at 
a  handsome  profit  at  one  dollar  per  pound.  In  fact,  Mr.  Cockerill 
claims  that  there  is  more  margin  of  profit  in  it  than  in  the  growth  of 
more  ordinary  wool." 

These  wools  are  designated  in  Germany  as  nolle  wools. 
Their  successful  culture  was  deemed  a  fit  employment  for 
noblemen  of  high  birth  ;  and  the  princes  of  Hungary,  we  are  in- 


14  SHEEP   HUSBANDRY   IN   THE   SOUTH. 

formed,  now  the  principal  growers  there,  continue  the  produc- 
tion from  motives  of  pride.  Two  Hungarian  princes  competed 
with  each  other  on  exhibits  of  nolle  wools  at  our  Centennial 
Exhibition.  The  patrician  element  of  the  South  would  be 
not  uncongenial  to  a  similar  industrial  competition. 

Asking  pardon  of  our  readers  for  this  digression,  we  pro- 
ceed to  consider  other  important  conditions  of  successful 
sheep  husbandry. 

Resources  for  the  Nutrition  of  Sheep.  —  The  next  point  of 
inquiry  is  as  to  the  resources,  natural  or  artificial,  for  the  nutri- 
tion of  sheep  in  the  South.  This  involves  not  only  further 
consideration  as  to  climate,  but  also  the  influences  of  physical 
geography,  soil,  and  hygroscopic  conditions.  As  it  would  be 
impossible,  in  our  limited  space,  to  consider  these  conditions  in 
each  of  the  Southern  States,  we  will  select  a  typical  district, 
such  as  that  composed  by  the  States  of  Georgia,  and  North 
and  South  Carolina.  The  physical  geography  in  this  district 
is  very  distinctly  marked,  and  is  illustrated  by  the  natural 
divisions  in  Georgia  known  as  Lower,  Middle,  and  Upper 
Georgia,  or  low  country,  hill  country,  and  mountain  country ; 
the  characteristic  features  of  these  divisions  extending  through 
North  Carolina  to  Virginia.  The  lower  division,  sometimes 
called  the  tide-water  zone,  consists,  in  Georgia,  of  a  belt  of 
country,  with  an  area  of  about  35,000  square  miles,  much 
rising  as  high  as  300  feet  above  the  ocean.  Geologically,  it 
consists  of  the  three  divisions,  Eocene,  Miocene,  and  Plio- 
cene of  the  Tertiary  period.  The  soils  on  the  dry  lands  are 
generally  light,  and  sometimes  too  sterile  to  admit  of  profita- 
ble cultivation  ;  that  of  the  swamps  and  river  bottoms  is 
often  exceedingly  fertile.  This  is  the  land  of  the  lorig- 
leaved,  or  famous  Georgia  pine,  and  wire  grass.  The  mid- 
dle region  commences  at  the  head  of  navigation  of  the 
rivers,  the  line  of  junction  of  the  two  regions  forming  the 
line  upon  which  the  great  interior  cities  are  situated.  The 
middle,  or  hill  country,  having  an  area  of  about  15,000  square 
miles,  rises,  first,  into  gentle  hills,  and  finally,  as  it  approaches 
the  mountains,  into  high  and  often  broken  elevations.  The 
geological  formation  underlying  this  country  consists  of  the 


SHEEP    HUSBANDRY   IN   THE   SOUTH.  15 

Primary  and  Metamorphic  rocks,  and  the  soil  in  its  natural 
state  is  generally  fertile.  In  this  division  is  comprised  what 
was  formerly  regarded  as  the  el  dorado  cotton  country  of  the 
State.  The  mountain  country  above  this,  with  an  area  of 
about  10,000  square  miles,  is  formed  by  the  different  chains 
of  the  great  Appalachian  range.  For  further  details  as  to  a 
portion  of  this  district,  North  Carolina,  the  reader  is  referred 
to  the  valuable  paper  of  our  correspondent,  Gen.  John  A. 
Young,  published  in  the  Appendix. 

With  the  indications  as  to  natural  soils  given  in  the  above 
sketch,  in  order  to  determine  the  resources  of  the  country  in 
question  for  supplying  pasturage  and  forage  for  sheep,  we 
must  consider  certain  atmospheric  conditions,  which  apply 
not  only  to  the  immediate  sections  under  consideration,  but 
to  the  whole  of  the  vast  country  lying  south  of  the  thirty-fifth 
parallel,  and  between  the  Atlantic  and  the  meridian  of  San 
Antonio,  Texas,  which  is  par  excellence  the  cotton  belt  of 
America.  The  remarks  of  Mr.  Walter  Wells,  in  his  admira- 
ble paper  on  the  cotton  culture  in  the  Unite'd  States,  on  the 
influence  which  the  rainfall  has  on  this  culture,  are  very  in- 
structive in  this  connection. 

"  The  cotton  plant,  in  its  period  of  growth,  requires  abundant  rain  ; 
its  succulent  foliage,  if  duly  supplied  with  moisture,  appearing  fresh 
under  a  sun  that  shrinks  the  leaves  of  a  majority  of  other  crops.  In 
the  cotton-growing  district  surrounding  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  the  fall 
of  rain  is  so  profuse  through  the  midsummer  as  to  suggest  very  dis- 
tinctly the  temporary  establishment  of  true  tropical  conditions, —  the 
lapping  over  of  torrid-zone  rains  upon  this  portion  of  the  temperate 
zone  while  the  sun  is  at  its  northernmost  declination.  As  the  sun 
retires,  the  tropical  conditions  give  way  ;  the  comparatively  dry,  serene, 
and  temperate  autumn  of  the  mid-latitudes  succeeds,  securing  most 
favorable  conditions  for  the  maturing  and  gathering  of  the  cotton 
harvest. 

"  The  cotton  plant  seems  to  be,  in  a  peculiar  manner,  dependent 
upon  the  latent  or  hygroscopic  moisture  of  the  atmosphere,  for  the 
perfect  development  of  its  peculiar  product.  It  loves  the  influences 
of  the  sea.  The  great  volumes  of  vapor  raised  from  that  immense 
evaporating  cauldron,  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  drawn  inland  by  the  draught 


16  SHEEP   HUSBANDRY   IN   THE  SOUTH. 

of  summer  heat,  not  only  supply  to  all  the  surrounding  country  profuse 
rain,  with  numerous,  and  at  certain  seasons  almost  daily,  showers,  but 
immerse  all  vegetation  in  an  atmosphere  charged  to  repletion  with  a 
liquid  and  bland  solution ;  hence  the  long,  trailing,  moisture-loving 
mosses  of  the  Southern  forests,  and  hence  a  vigor  of  the  cotton-plant 
and  softness  of  its  staple  elsewhere  hardly  paralleled." 

It  need  not  be  said  that  the  influences  which  affect  the 
cotton-plant  so  favorably  must  have  an  equally  beneficial 
effect  upon  the  plants  required  for  the  pasturage  and  forage 
of  sheep,  provided  they  are  adapted  to  the  climate  ;  especially 
upon  the  grasses,  grass  of  all  vegetation  being  soonest  affected 
by  drought  on  the  one  hand,  and  an  over-abundance  of  rain 
on  the  other.  "  It  is,"  says  a  recent  writer  on  British  sheep- 
farming,  "  the  regularly  distributed  rain  —  the  fine  weekly  or 
bi-weekly  showers  —  that  the  grazier  can  alone  build  upon  for 
success  in  raising  wool  and  mutton."  The  very  existence  of 
the  American  cotton  belt  proves  at  least  that  within  it  no 
such  droughts  can  prevail  as  compel  the  transhumance  of  the 
merinos  of  Spain  and  Upper  California,  and  in  Lower  Cali- 
fornia destroyed  during  the  last  year  millions  of  sheep. 

The  G-rasses.  —  In  a  country  where  cotton  was,  until  very 
recently,  looked  to  as  the  only  market  crop,  and  grass  as 
the  deadliest  enemy  of  cotton,  and  where  but  few  animals 
were  required  for  labor,  it  could  not  be  supposed  that  there 
should  exist  the  rich,  thick-swarded  pastures  or  meadows 
of  many  portions  of  the  North.  But  grass  culture  is  now 
attracting  large  attention  at  the  South,  and,  happily,  from 
persons  of  science  and  practical  knowledge.  Conspicuous 
among  them  was  Mr.  C.  W.  Howard,  recently  deceased, 
whose  extremely  well-written  manual  on  the  cultivation  of 
grasses  and  forage  plants  at  the  South  is  the  principal  source 
of  the  notes  which  follow.  Mr.  Howard,  speaking  gener- 
ally but  carefully,  says,  that,  after  an  observation  of  more 
than  twenty  years,  he  does  "  not  hesitate  to  say,  if  ground  be 
made  sufficiently  rich  and  as  well  prepared  ;  that  if  judgment 
be  exercised  in  sowing,  and  in  adaptation  of  species  to  par- 
ticular localities,  and  proper  subsequent  management  be  ob- 
served,—  that,  so  far  as  soil  and  climate  are  concerned,  the 


SHEEP    HUSBANDRY   IN   THE   SOUTH.  17 

South  has  unusual  fitness  for  the  successful  cultivation  of 
the  valuable  grasses." 

While  admitting  that  there  are  portions  of  the  South  .(jas  is 
the  case  in  all  countries)  where  the  grasses  will  not  grow, 
he  declares  unhesitatingly,  "  There  is  nothing  in  the  climate 
of  the  South  to  prevent  the  successful  growth  of  the  valuable 
grasses."  Omitting  all  that  he  says  upon  the  culture  of 
grasses  for  hay,  —  as  the  winter  grazing  at  the  South  is  a  sub- 
stitute, except  in  exceptional  periods,  for  this  indispensable 
fodder  for  sheep  at  the  North,  —  we  will  condense  his  obser- 
vations upon  the  grasses  for  pasturage. 

One  of  the  most  marked  advantages  of  the  South  is  the 
ability  to  grow  grasses  which  may  be  pastured  in  winter. 
Thus  the  cost  of  cutting  the  grass,  and  saving  the  hire  of 
barn  for  storing  it,  arid  the  cost  of  feeding  it  out,  are  dis- 
pensed with;  while  succulent  food,  which,  at  the  North, 
must  be  provided  for  by  storing  roots  and  vegetables,  is 
afforded  throughout  the  year.  By  the  aid  of  winter  grasses, 
it  is  perfectly  practicable,  throughout  a  large  portion  of  the 
South,  to  raise  sheep  without  other  cost  than  the  interest  on 
land  and  the  value  of  the  salt.  Oats,  barley,  and  rye,  sown 
in  the  fall,  may  be  grazed  during  the  winter  without  injury 
to  the  crop  of  grain,  as  is  frequently  done ;  but  they  must 
be  sown  annually,  and  are  inferior  to  permanent  grass  pas- 
tures. The  meadow  oat,  orchard,  and  blue  grass,  with  wild 
rye  or  Tyrrell  grass,  are  chiefly  relied  upon  for  permanent 
winter-grass  pasture. 

Spring  pasturage  is  afforded  by  the  broom  sedge ;  and  the 
summer  pasture,  by  the  native  crab-grass,  —  an  annual  pecul- 
iar to  the  South,  which  springs  up  everywhere  at  the  South  in 
the  stubble  where  small  grains  had  been  harvested,  making 
a  summer  pasture  which  cannot  be  surpassed.  Very  sensi- 
ble farmers  at  the  South  have  estimated  the  crab-grass  pas- 
tures of  a  fair  season,  on  stubble  land,  as  being  nearly  equal 
in  value  to  the  preceding  small-grain  crop.  "  The  Northern 
farmer,"  as  Mr.  Howard  observes,  "  has  nothing  to  correspond 
with  our  crab-grass.  His  stock  are  eating,  without  appetite 
or  relish,  in  August  and  September,  the  old  grass  of  the 

a 


18  SHEEP  HUSBANDRY  IN  THE  SOUTH. 

( 

spring  ;  while  our  stock  are  luxuriating  on  the  fresh  bite  of  the 
newly  sprung  crab-grass."  Mr.  Howard  does  not  mention 
the  Japan  clover  (Lespedizea  striata).  This  exotic,  as  we 
learn  from  reports  to  the  Department  of  Agriculture,  is  rapidly 
taking  possession  of  uncultivated  places  in  South  Carolina, 
and  even  in  Tennessee.  It  is  highly  relished  by  sheep,  and, 
although  short,  furnishes  a  good  pasture  from  May  till  frost. 

The  grass,  however,  par  excellence  for  summer  pastures  at 
the  South  is  the  Bermuda  grass,*  and  would  seem  to  surpass 
any  known  at  the  North.  This  species,  chiefly  found  at 
present  in  Middle  Georgia,  though  abundant  in  Louisiana,  was 
introduced  from  the  West  Indies,  and  is  believed  to  be  identi- 
cal with  the  celebrated  daub,  or  sacred  grass,  of  East  India. 
Being  stoloniferous  in  its  habit,  it  clings  so  closely  to  the  soil 
that  it  is  eradicated  with  great  difficulty  ;  and,  rapidly  propa- 
gating itself  by  means  of  its  runners,  it  was  regarded  as  the 
worst  pest  of  the  cotton  plantation.  "  Fighting  General 
Green  "  became  a  proverb  which  illustrated  the  perpetual 


*  This  grass  is  known  in  India  by  the  various  names  of  daub,  doob,  darbba, 
or  darva.  Sir  William  Jones,  in  his  "  Botanical  Observations  of  Select  Indian 
Plants,"  published  in  "  Asiatic  Researches,"  vol.  iv.  p.  520,  speaks  thus  of  the 
darbba  or  daub  grass  :  "  Every  law-book  and  almost  every  poem  in  Sanscrit  con- 
tains frequent  allusions  to  the  holiness  of  this  plant ;  and,  in  the  fourth  Veda, 
we  have  the  following  address  to  it,  at  the  close  of  a  terrible  incantation  :  '  Thee, 
O  Darbba !  the  learned  pronounce  a  divinity,  not  subject  to  age  or  death ;  Thee 
they  call  the  armor  of  Indra,  the  preserver  of  regions,  the  destroyer  of  enemies, 
a  giver  that  gives  increase  to  the  field.  At  the  time  when  the  ocean  resounded, 
when  the  clouds  murmured  and  lightnings  flashed,  then  was  Darbba  produced, 
pure  as  a  drop  of  gold/  " 

Capt.  David  Richardson,  in  the  seventh  volume  of  the  "  Asiatic  Researches/' 
says  of  this  grass,  which  he  calls  "  doob  grass : "  "  This  is  probably  one  of  the 
most  useful  and  beautiful  grasses  in  this  or  any  other  country ;  and,  like  the 
cow  which  feeds  on  it,  is  held  in  high  religious  veneration  by  many  tribes  of 
Hindoos.  A  natural  velvet  carpet,  if  the  expression  be  admissible  here,  may 
at  any  time  be  formed  of  this  elegant  grass,  in  the  space  of  two  or  three  weeks, 
merely  by  cutting  it  in  pieces  and  sprinkling  them  on  prepared  ground  mixed 
with  earth.  In  this  way,  the  beauty  of  rivers,  public  roads,  fortifications,  gar- 
den walks,  and  marginal  borders,  is  frequently  secured  in  India,  upon  principles 
which  unite  expedition,  elegance,  and  strength,  in  one  verdant  sward,  which,  to 
those  unacquainted  with  the  rapidity  of  vegetation  in  these  climes,  has  almost 
the  appearance  of  enchantment."  It  is  curious  to  observe  that  the  same  mode 
of  propagating  this  grass  is  followed  in  India  as  in  our  States  at  the  South. 


SHEEP    HUSBANDRY   IN   THE   SOUTH.  19 

warfare  which  the  planter  had  to  wage  with  the  Bermuda 
grass.  Not  unfrequently  the  grass  was  the  victor,  and  many 
considerable  districts  were  completely  abandoned  to  its  sway. 
It  is  now  thoroughly  appreciated  by  the  best  cultivators  of 
the  South.  "  I  think  it,"  says  Col.  A.  J.  Lane,  a  successful 
cotton-planter,  "  very  doubtful  whether  there  is  an  acre  of 
land  thoroughly  set  in  Bermuda  grass  (if  the  proper  use  is 
made  of  it)  that  is  not  worth  more  than  any  crop  that  can 
be  grown  upon  it."  It  will  flourish  on  dry  and  almost  barren 
lands.  It  will  hold  its  place  indefinitely.  Its  nutritive  power 
is  said  to  surpass  that  of  blue  grass ;  it  containing,  according 
to  the  analysis  of  Dr.  Ravenel,  fourteen  per  cent  of  the  albu- 
minoids. Its  yield  in  weight  far  surpasses  that  of  clover. 
Although  it  produces  no  seed,  it  is  easily  propagated  by  sowing 
broadcast  pieces  of  the  roots  obtained  from  the  turf,  washed  free 
from  the  dirt,  and  chopped  fine  by  a  cutting  machine.  The 
grass,  when  grazed,  forms  a  very  compact  sod,  which,  turned 
in  by  the  plow,  has  extraordinary  manurial  value.  The  re- 
sults of  cultivating  thirty  acres  of  land  well  set  with  this 
grass  are  thus  stated  by  Colonel  Lane  :  — 

"  First  crop :  cotton,  half  stand,  owing  to  the  mass  of  undecomposed 
sod ;  eighteen  hundred  pounds  of  seed  cotton  per  acre. 

"  Second  crop :  cotton,  two  thousand  eight  hundred  pounds  seed 
cotton  per  acre. 

"  Third  crop :  corn,  sixty-five  bushels  per  acre  ;  corn  manured  with 
cotton  seed. 

"  Fourth  crop :  wheat,  forty-two  bushels  per  acre. 

"  The  average  product  of  this  land,  without  the  sod,  would  have 
been  not  more  than  one  hundred  pounds  of  seed  cotton,  fifteen  to  twenty 
bushels  of  corn,  and  eight  to  ten  of  wheat." 

According  to  Mr.  Howard,  by  turning  up  Bermuda  grass 
land  by  the  plow,  and  sowing  blue  grass  and  white  clover,  a 
pasture  can  be  produced  capable  of  sustaining  stock  summer 
and  winter.  As  the  Bermuda  grass  dies  down  in  autumn,  the 
blue  grass  and  white  clover  appear ;  the  reverse  occurring  in 
the  heat  of  summer. 

We  will  conclude  our  extracts  from  this  writer  with  one 
more  directly  pertinent  to  our  subject. 


20  SHEEP    HUSBANDRY   IN   THE   SOUTH. 

"  More  than  thirty  years  ago,  the  writer,  walking  with  a  gentleman 
of  far-reaching  mind,  and  observing  the  gullied  and  excoriated  condition 
of  the  soil  near  Milledgeville,  inquired  :  '  What  is  to  restore  its  fertility 
to  the  worn-out  portion  of  Georgia  ? '  The  answer  was  promptly  given : 
'  Sheep,  and  Bermuda  grass.'  There  was  profound  wisdom  in  the  reply. 
A  large  portion  of  old  Georgia  must  become  a  sheep-walk,  before  it  can 
be  restored  to  fertility,  and  the  land-owners  can  become  independent  of 
the  negro." 

A  correspondent  from  Memphis,  Tennessee,  writing  to  the 
Department  of  Agriculture  in  January  of  the  present  year, 
says :  — 

"  The  best  of  all  our  grasses,  though  not  a  winter  grass,  is  the  Ber- 
muda. Too  much  cannot  be  said  about  it  as  a  pasture  grass ;  and,  if 
the  South  were  half  covered  with  it,  we  could  then  have  fat  sheep  and 
plenty.  For  successful  sheep-raising  at  the  South,  we  want  this  grass 
alone.  Turnips,  —  plenty  of  them,  not  patches,  —  large  fields  of  them, 
and  fields  of  rye  or  wheat  or  oats  to  pasture  on  in  winter,  will  make 
up  for  the  rest  of  the  year." 

Forage  Plants.  —  To  this  testimony  as  to  the  relations  of 
Bermuda  grass  to  Southern  sheep  husbandry  may  be  added  — 
although  his  enthusiastic  deductions  need  some  qualification 
—  that  of  Dr.  George  Little,  the  State  geologist  of  Georgia, 
who  says :  — 

"  When  the  value  of  Bermuda  grass  is  appreciated  by  farmers,  and 
the  thin  and  waste  portions  of  their  farms  are  clothed  with  it,  which 
seems  to  have  been  intended  especially  for  sheep,  Georgia  will  sustain 
a  sheep  to  every  acre  of  territory,  and  37,000,000  of  sheep  would  be 
worth  to  their  owners  in  the  aggregate  $37,000,000,  net,  per  annum,  — 
nearly  double  the  present  gross  value  of  the  cotton  crop  of  the  State." 

There  are  exceptional  periods  when  winter  pastures  will 
prove  insufficient.  These  periods,  short  at  the  extreme  South, 
become  longer  with,  the  ascending  latitudes.  Some  supply  of 
cured  forage  is  indispensable  for  these  periods.  The  field  pea, 
which  grows  luxuriantly  on  all  the  sandy  soils  of  the  Tertiary 
formations  of  the  South,  is  for  that  country  what  the  clover  is 
to  the  North.  It  is  highly  recommended  by  Mr.  Howard  and 
Dr.  Randall  as  a  winter  forage  for  the  South,  as  its  haulm,  or 
straw,  when  cut  partially  green,  makes  a  rich  fodder  relished 


SHEEP   HUSBANDRY   IN   THE   SOUTH.  21 

by  all  stock.  Dr.  Randall  says  that,  "  for  sheep  and  breeding 
ewes,  there  is  probably  no  feed  in  the  world  equal  to  nicely 
cured  pea  haulm,  with  a  portion  of  the  seed  left  unthreshed. 
It  gives  them  condition  and  vigor,  and  prepares  them  to  sup- 
ply a  bountiful  supply  of  milk  for  their  young." 

To  this  may  be  added  the  sweet  potato,  —  another  peculiar 
product  of  the  South.  It  is  estimated  that  from  two  to  three 
bushels  of  sweet  potatoes  are  equal  in  value  to  one  bushel  of 
corn.  More  than  three  times  as  many  bushels  of  sweet  pota- 
toes can  be  raised  on  an  acre  as  can  be  raised  of  corn  on  the 
most  fertile  lands  of  the  West.  Well-cured  pea  vines  and 
sweet  potatoes  afford  as  cheap  and  valuable  food  for  fattening 
sheep  as  can  be  found  in  any  country  whatever.  A  still  more 
important  product,  peculiar  to  the  South,  must  not  be  over- 
looked, —  the  abundant  cotton  seed,  more  nutritious  than  any 
grain,  and  so  cheap  that  it  is  afforded  in  Georgia  for  fifteen 
cents  a  bushel. 

Alfalfa.  —  California  has  recently  brought  into  prominence 
a  plant  of  foreign  origin,  which  is  destined  to  replace  all 
others  at  the  South  for  soiling  or  hay.  This  is  the  alfalfa, 
Chili  clover  or  lucerne,  Medicago  sativa.  Although  introduced 
into  California  from  Chili,  —  whence  its  Spanish  name,  —  it 
has  long  been  the  chief  reliance  of  the  French  farmers. 
While  it  will  not  succeed  in  England,  for  want  of  sun,  nor  at 
the  North,  on  account  of  the  winter's  cold,  it  has  been  thor- 
oughly tested  at  the  South,  and  found  to  thrive  from  Texas 
to  Virginia.  Its  requirements  are  very  rich  light  and  dry 
land,  such  as  will  be  permeable  to  its  long  tap  root,  which 
penetrates  the  ground,  sometimes  as  deep  as  seventeen  feet, 
for  the  moisture  which  enables  it  to  resist  any  degree  of  su- 
perficial dryness.  These  requirements  being  met,  it  will, 
after  the  first  year,  yield  from  six  even  to  eight  tons  of  hay, 
which  is  preferred  by  cattle  and  sheep  to  any  hay  whatever. 
A  writer  in  the  Transactions  of  the  State  Agricultural  So- 
ciety of  California  for  1871  says  that  the  alfalfa  is  the  only 
plant  which  will  grow  through  the  dry  summers  of  that  State, 
and  keep  green  all  summer.  He  is  assured,  by  those  that 
have  pastured  sheep  upon  it,  that  one  acre  of  good  land  will 


22  SHEET?   HUSBANDRY   IN   THE   SOUTH. 

keep  forty  sheep  in  good  condition  all  the  year  round.  The 
"  Pacific  Rural  Press,"  of  March,  1878,  describing  a  ranch 
having  seven  thousand  sheep,  and  other  stock  in  proportion, 
says  that  thirteen  hundred  acres,  sown  to  alfalfa,  were  cut 
last  year  five  times,  yielding  about  one  and  a  half  tons  of 
hay  to  the  acre  to  each  cutting.  From  35,000  to  40,000  acres 
in  California  were  seeded  with  this  clover  in  1876.  Its  cul- 
ture is  regarded  as  the  only  hope  for  preserving  the  sheep 
husbandry  in  the  dryer  portions  of  the  State.  It  flourishes 
admirably  in  Texas ;  keeping  green  all  winter,  and  affording 
feed  tQ  all  kinds  of  stock.  In  upper  portions  of  Georgia, 
the  alfalfa  does  not  keep  green  through  the  months  of  De- 
cember and  January,  and  is  used  only  for  seeding  and  hay. 
It  would  probably  keep  green  through  the  winter  in  the  lower 
parts  of  the  State,  and  might  be  pastured. 

Turnips.  —  An  important  feature  of  the  climate  of  the 
South  is  that  the  wool-grower  of  that  region  can  adopt  the 
English  practice  of  folding  sheep  on  turnips.  It  is  well 
known  that  the  first  great  step  in  the  improvement  of  the 
sheep  husbandry  of  England  was  the  introduction  from  Hol- 
land, by  William  of  Orange,  of  the  turnip  culture,  at  the  end 
of  the  seventeenth  century.  They  were  fed  to  sheep ;  and 
it  was  found  that,  by  this  system,  the  same  land  would  sup- 
port treble  the  number  of  sheep.  Turnips  and  sheep  form 
the  foundation  of  the  English  four-field  system,  and  are 
the  basis  of  English  agriculture.  This  system  cannot  be 
adopted  at  the  North,  on  account  of  the  turnips  freezing  in 
the  ground. 

The  folding  system  is  especially  fitted  for  the  sandy  lands 
on  the  coast,  both  as  the  cheapest  means  of  ameliorating  them, 
and  because  such  soils  are  favorable  to  the  growth  of  the 
turnip. 

The  mode  of  procedure  is  this:  After  turnips  are  grown 
on  land  which  has  been  suitably  fertilized  and  cultivated,  — 
say  in  December  or  January,  —  a  fold  is  made  of  hurdles  or 
a  portable  fence,  enclosing  as  many  turnips  as  the  flock  of 
sheep  will  eat  in  twenty-four  hours.  One  thousand  sheep 
will  consume  the  turnips  on  an  acre  in  that  time ;  one  hun- 


SHEEP    HUSBANDRY   IN    THE   SOUTH. 


23 


dred,  a  tenth  of  an  acre  in  the  same  time.  The  manure  de- 
posited by  the  sheep  in  that  time  will  suffice  for  four  years' 
rotation.  Mr.  Howard,  in  his  admirable  paper  on  the  condi- 
tion of  agriculture  in  the  cotton  States,  says  of  this  system, 
which  he  has  practically  tested  on  Georgia  lands  :  — 

"  The  advantage  of  folding  turnips  is  twofold.  It  is  by  far  the 
cheapest  method  of  manuring  land.  No  hauling  manure  is  required, 
as  the  sheep  haul  their  own  manure,  both  solid  and  liquid,  to  precisely 
the  spot  on  which  it  is  desired  to  apply  it.  It  is  evenly  spread,  without 
labor,  no  part  being  excessively  manured  at  the  expense  of  another 
part.  The  effect  of  this  manuring  will  be  felt  for  years.  Land  so 
manured  is  good  for  two  bags  of  cotton  to  the  acre  the  following  year. 
The  other  advantage  is  the  fine  condition  into  which  the  sheep  are  put 
at  a  season  of  the  year  when  mutton  brings  the  highest  price.  When 
land  is  put  into  sufficiently  good  order  to  bring  five  hundred  bushels  of 
turnips  to  the  acre,  the  gain  in  mutton  is  equivalent  to  the  cost  of  the 
crop.  The  heavy  manuring  of  the  land  is,  then,  clear  gain." 

Present  Condition  of  Southern  Sheep  Husbandry.  —  When 
we  turn  from  this  picture  of  the  possibilities  of  sheep  hus- 
bandry at  the  South,  to  its  actual  condition  at  the  present 
time,  the  contrast  is  very  painful.  The  reports  of  the  very 
able  statistician  of  the  Department  of  Agriculture,  which, 
from  a  careful  examination  of  the  system  adopted  by  him  in 
arriving  at  results,  we  regard  as  very  reliable,  show  the  num- 
bers of  sheep  in  the  States  of  the  cotton  belt,  excluding 
Texas,  to  have  been  as  follows,  in  January,  1878 :  — 


STATES. 

Number  of  Sheep. 

Area  in  Acres. 

North  Carolina,    

490,000 

32,450,560 

Soutli  Carolina             .          ... 

175  000 

21,760,000 

Georgia  

382,300 

37,120,000 

Florida        .     .          .          

56,500 

37,931,520 

Alabama 

270  000 

32,462,080 

Louisiana  
Arkansas    .... 

125,000 
285  000 

26,461,440 
29,184,000 

Tennessee  
Mississippi      

850,000 
250,000 

14,720,000 
30,179,840 

Total 

2  883  800 

262,269,440 

24  SHEEP  HUSBANDRY  IN  THE  SOUTH. 

The  area  of  the  States  named  is  derived  from  the  Reports 
of  the  Land  Office. 

Thus  there  are  in  these  States  not  far  from  one  sheep  to 
every  100  acres.  Ohio,  with  an  area  of  25,766,960  acres,  has 
3,783,000  sheep,  or  a  sheep  to  about  every  seven  acres. 

One  county  in  Pennsylvania,  Washington,  has  over  400,000 
sheep,  producing  as  good  merino  wool  as  there  is  in  the  world, 
while  the  whole  of  Georgia  has  not  that  number. 

The  U.  S.  Commissioner  of  Agriculture,  with  a  due  appre- 
ciation of  the  importance  of  sheep  husbandry  to  the  South, 
has  recently  sent  circulars,  with  minute  inquiries  as  to  the 
present  condition  and  possibilities  of  this  industry,  with  blank 
returns,  to  his  assistants  in  each  county  of  the  Southern  States. 
The  original  returns  to  these  circulars  received  in  January,  we 
have  been  kindly  permitted  to  examine,  and  have  carefully 
read  every  one  received.  The  general  impression  made  upon 
our  mind  by  these  returns,  as  to  the  actual  condition  of  sheep 
husbandry,  in  most  of  the  States,  was  far  from  agreeable. 
The  returns  did  not  show  a  single  case  of  a  well-bred  and 
carefully  kept  flock,  such  as  we  found  in  the  North;  although 
it  is  known  that  there  are  exceptional  cases  of  such  flocks. 
As  a  rule,  the  variety  kept  is  the  native  breed,  producing 
about  two  pounds  of  wool,  selling  from  25  to  30  cents.  Very 
few  flocks,  as  would  be  seen,  reach  a  hundred  in  number. 
Frequently  the  animals  obtain  their  entire  subsistence  from 
the  swamps  and  range.  Those  which  have  somewhat  better 
care  during  the  winter  months,  receive  a  little  cotton  seed  and 
a  few  turnips,  and  straw  from  the  threshing-floor.  But  no 
provision  seems  to  be  made  of  hay  or  other  forage.  All  the 
returns  agree  in  declaring  that  the  great  obstacle  to  sheep- 
raising  is  the  destruction  by  dogs ;  popular  opinion  having 
hitherto  prevented  the  enactment  of  suitable  dog-laws.  One 
return  says :  "  There  are  but  two  successful  wool-growers  in 
this  county,  and  their  ranges  are  in  constant  supervision,  a 
stock-minder  in  each  constantly  patrolling." 

There  is  now  and  then  a  hopeful  gleam  in  the  returns.  A 
farmer  in  Georgia  says,  "  his  '  herd '  of  104  sheep  produced 
$132.50."  It  cost  only  $10  to  feed  them  on  cotton  seed. 


SHEEP   HUSBANDRY   IN   THE   SOUTH.  25 

"What  my  sheep  make,"  he  says,  "is  just  like  picking  it 
up." 

Major  R.  A.  Griffin  of  Horry  County,  South  Carolina, 
stated  by  the  reporter  to  be  a  person  of  acknowledged  skill 
and  success  in  sheep  husbandry,  says :  "  An  individual  expe- 
rience of  twenty-five  years  has  proven  that  the  increase  will 
pay  all  expense  of  keep,  leaving  fleeces  and  manure  as  profit." 

Thomas  M.  Bealy,  of  South  Carolina,  sa}>s :  — 

"  Oats  and  rye  are  the  only  small  grains,  except  rice,  that  will  grow 
here.  For  every  plough  animal  on  the  farm,  the  farmer  should  sow- 
down,  sod  well  prepared,  in  September,  six  acres  of  oats.  Upon  these 
oats,  he  should  turn  in  three  to  five  head  of  sheep  the  middle  of 
December.  It  will  give  them  the  best  of  pasture  until  first  of  March, 
when  they  should  be  turned  out,  and  the  oats  left  to  head  up.  Each 
six  acres  of  these  oats  should  yield  feed  for  one  horse  or  mule  twelve 
months,  and  kept  in  order  at  constant  work  without  a  grain  of  corn. 
Such  farming  would  make  a  man  rich  in  a  short  time." 

E.  C.  Ethridge  of  Colerain,  North  Carolina,  says :  "  When 
sheep  culture  receives  the  attention  that  cotton  now  does  in 
this  section,  it  will  be  the  most  prosperous  country  in  the 
world." 

Andrew  A.  Spaulding,  of  Rockingham  County,  North 
Carolina,  born  a  Scotchman,  says :  — 

"  I  am  from  the  North,  and  have  been  here  four  years.  I  believe 
this  is  the  making  of  a  good  agricultural  country,  if  it  was  properly 
cultivated  by  an  improved  system  of  farming;  particularly,  sowing 
grasses  and  clover,  having  a  rotation  of  crops,  keeping  more  stock,  and 
letting  the  fields  lie  three  years  in  grass,  and  sowing  down  yearly  as 
much  as  is  taken  up.  By  this  means,  the  farmers  would  be  better  off, 
and  the  land  vastly  improved." 

A  more  exact  picture  of  the  sheep  husbandry  of  the  South, 
as  hitherto  pursued,  is  given  by  our  intelligent  correspondent, 
General  Young,  of  North  Carolina,  who,  as  a  wool-manufac- 
turer, has  been  led  to  give  particular  attention  to  the  wool 
resources  of  his  own  State.  He  says :  — 

"  Twenty  years'  experience  in  manufacturing  the  wools  grown  in 
this  State  has  familiarized  the  writer  with  the  manner  in  which  this 

4 


2l5  SHEEP    HUSBANDRY   IN   THE   SOUTH. 

valuable  animal  (the  sheep)  has  been  cared  for  ;  and  has  convinced  him 
that,  without  great  natural  advantages,  their  utter  neglect  would  long 
since  have  exterminated  them  from  the  soil.  There  are  but  few  plan- 
tations iu  the  State  upon  which  there  was  not  to  be  found  a  flock  of 
sheep,  intended  to  be  only  sufficient  to  furnish  the  wool  necessary  to 
clothe  the  family,  and  furnish  an  occasional  mutton.  These  sheep 
were  generally  the  'native'  breed,  rarely  improved  by  crosses  upon 
foreign  blood.  As  a  general  rule,  these  small  flocks  never  entered  into 
their  owner's  estimate  of  his  valuable  property,  and  they  were  never 
so  treated.  In  the  spring,  they  were  shorn  of  their  fleeces,  and  turned 
outside  their  owners'  enclosures  to  seek  their  summer's  support  in  the 
forests  and  waste  lands,  over  which  they  chose  to  roam,  and  to  run  the 
gauntlet  for  life  among  hungry  hounds  and  gaunt  curs,  almost  as  numer- 
ous as  themselves.  All  that  might  escape,  and  were  able  to  find  their 
homes  in  the  fall  season,  and  would  seek  its  inhospitalities  in  the  win- 
ter, would  be  admitted  within  the  gates,  and  permitted  to  eke  out  a 
scanty  living  in  the  denuded  fields  and  corners  of  worm-fences,  which 
is  supplemented  by  a  morning  and  evening  allowance  of  corn  fodder, 
which  the  compassionate  and  appreciative  owner  allows  to  be  fed  to 
them  by  a  boy  who  has  not  yet  attained  sufficient  size  to  be  otherwise 
useful.  The  only  protection  against  the  rains  and  occasional  storms 
of  winter,  afforded  to  a  majority  of  the  flocks,  being  such  as  their 
instinct  leads  them  to  seek,  by  hovering  on  the  sheltering  sides -of  barns 
and  out-buildii>£S  that  may  be  accessible.  Yet,  under  this  treatment, 
the  flocks  of  the  farmers  kept  their  numbers  full,  and  occasionally 
multiply  beyond  their  wants." 

The  facility  with  which  these  flocks  may  be  improved  is 
well  illustrated  by  General  Young.  He  says  :  — 

"  Of  necessity,  the  fleeces  of  these  sheep  are  light  and  inferior.  But, 
wherever  an  effort  has  been  made  to  improve  the  stock  by  crossing  on 
merino  or  other  approved  blood,  the  effect  is  satisfactory  and  lasting. 
From  the  universal  custom  of  turning  the  entire  stocks  into  the  com- 
mon '  range,'  the  impression  of  a  merino,  Southdown,  or  other  impor- 
tation, would  manifest  itself  upon  the  flocks  of  entire  neighborhoods. 
So  apparent  is  the  improvement  thus  made,  that,  in  purchasing  the 
surplus  brought  to  market,  there  would  be  no  difficulty  in  recognizing 
the  wool  from  a  neighborhood  that  had  been  favored  by  some  enter- 
prising farmer  having  imported  from  Virginia  or  Pennsylvania  a  pair 
of  blooded  animals.  Without  any  change  in  the  mode  of  treatment, 


SHEEP   HUSBANDRY   IN   THE   SOUTH.  27 

these  improvements  are  known  to  be  distinctly  manifest  in  neighbor- 
hoods thirty  years  after  their  introduction.  Being  able  to  withstand 
all  the  hardship  and  neglect,  and  promptly  to  respond  to  every  effort 
to  improve  their  quality  or  condition,  it  is  evident  that  there  is  in 
North  Carolina  an  adaptation  of  natural  gifts  to  their  peculiar  wants." 

The  returns  to  the  Department  of  Agriculture  before  re- 
ferred to  make  no  mention  of  the  large  flocks  —  reaching  as 
high,  in  some  cases,  as  3,500  —  which  are  spoken  of  by  the 
Commissioner  of  Agriculture  of  the  State  of  Georgia,  as  occur- 
ring on  the  pine-lands  of  that  State.  We  learn  from  General 
Abbott,  of  North  Carolina,  that  flocks  reaching  up  to  1,000 
head  are  found  on  the  pine-lands  of  that  State.  These  flocks, 
if  they  can  be  called  flocks,  are  never  fed ;  the  care  of  the 
owners  being  limited  to  marking  and  gathering  them  up  for 
shearing.  This  can  scarcely  be  called  sheep  husbandry  ;  for 
husbandry  implies  care,  and  provision  for  sustenance.  Indeed, 
of  the  large  portion  of  the  South,  —  especially  the  lower  South, 
excluding  Texas,  —  with  exceptions  which  almost  could  be 
counted  on  the  fingers,  taking  into  view  the  general  want  of 
care  and  provision  for  sustenance,  it  may  be  said  that  sheep 
husbandry,  in  the  proper  acceptation  of  the  term,  does  not 
exist  in  that  country.  This  cannot  be  considered  a  reproach. 
The  exclusive  devotion  to  cotton  accounts  for  it.  And  the 
interest  now  taken  in  sheep  culture  by  the  most  intelligent 
men  of  the  South,  and  the  general  interest  recently  manifested 
by  the  numerous  letters  received  by  the  Department  of  Agri- 
culture, asking  for  information  on  the  subject,  are  guaranties 
of  a  brighter  future  in  this  industry  at  the  South. 

Our  view  of  the  actual  condition  of  this  industry  at  the 
South,  we  admit,  does  not  correspond  with  the  impression 
readers  would  be  apt  to  form  from  the  report  of  the  Com- 
missioner of  Agriculture  of  the  State  of  Georgia,  upon  the 
sheep  husbandry  of  that  State.  He  says,  that  "  the  average 
annual  profit  on  the  capital  invested  in  sheep  in  Georgia  is 
sixty-three  per  cent.  The.  average  annual  cost  of  keeping 
sheep  is  only  fifty-four  cents.  The  average  cost  of  raising 
a  pound  of  wool  is  only  six  cents  ;  while  the  average  price 
for  which  the  unwashed  wool  sells  is  thirty-three  and  a  third 


28  SHEEP   HUSBANDRY   IN   THE   SOUTH. 

cents,  or  twenty-seven  and  a  third  cents  net."  These  results 
are  alleged  to  have  been,  and  undoubtedly  were,  derived  from 
returns  addressed  to  those  engaged  in  the  business.  Partic- 
ulars are  given  of  only  two  cases,  which  we  will  quote :  — 

"  Mr.  David  Ayers,  of  Camilla,  Mildred  County,  in  South-western 
Georgia,  where  snow  never  falls  and  the  ground  seldom  freezes,  and 
where  the  original  pine-forest  is  carpeted  with  native  grass,  says  his 
sheep  —  3,500  in  number  —  cost  him  annually  fourteen  cents  per  head, 
clip  three  pounds  of  unwashed  wool,  which  sells  at  thirty  cents  per 
pound,  giving  a  clear  profit  of  ninety  per  cent  on  the  money  and  labor 
invested  in  sheep.  Mr.  Ayers  does  not  feed  his  sheep  at  any  time  dur- 
ing the  year;  neither  has  he  introduced  the  improved  breeds,  using 
only  what  is  called  the  native  sheep." 

"  Mr.  Robert  C.  Humber,  of  Putnam  County,  in  Middle  Georgia, 
keeps  one  hundred  and  thirty-eight  sheep,  of  the  cross  between  the  me- 
rino and  the  common  sheep.  He  says  they  cost  nothing,  except  the 
salt  they  eat ;  while  they  pay  one  hundred  per  cent  on  the  investment, 
in  mutton,  lambs,  and  wool.  They  yield  an  average  of  three  pounds 
of  wool  per  head,  which  he  sells  at  the  very  low  price  of  twenty-five 
cents,  —  less  than  the  market-price.  It  costs  him  nothing,  except  the 
shearing.  His  sheep  range  on  Bermuda  grass,  —  old  fields  in  summer, 
and  the  plantation  at  large,  embracing  the  fields  from  which  crops  have 
been  gathered,  and  the  cane  bottoms  in  winter." 

We  are  not  disposed  to  deny  that  the  estimates  of  profits 
made  by  the  commissioner,  or  given  in  the  particular  cases 
cited,  are  literally  correct.  But  we  are  compelled  to  state, 
that  some  of  the  returns  from  the  above-named  State,  at  the 
U.  S.  Department  of  Agriculture,  express  dissent  from  the 
commissioner.  One  return  says :  "  His  figures  are  too  low 
for  my  county,  and  too  low  for  almost  the  entire  State." 
Indeed,  it  may  be  generally  said  that  no  particular  estimates 
of  the  cost  of  raising  sheep  and  the  profits  resulting  there- 
from can  be  relied  on  as  inducements  for  others  to  embark 
in  the  business.  The  broad  proposition  that  the  annual  profits 
from  raising  sheep  throughout  an  entire  State  are  sixty-three 
per  cent  must  be  fallacious.  While  it  may  be  true  that  a 
particular  owner,  having  a  vast  range  very  favorably  situated, 
in  which  two  or  three  thousand  can  pick  up  their  sustenance, 


SHEEP   HUSBANDRY   IN   THE   SOUTH.  29 

may  find  them  very  profitable,  a  competing  owner  in  his 
neighborhood  would  limit  the  range,  and  the  profits  would 
diminish.  It  may  be  true  that  small  flocks  will  cost  so  little 
to  their  owner  that  the  profit  from  them  will  be  "  just  like 
picking  it  up  ;  "  but  this  may  not  be  the  case  with  flocks  of 
two  or  three  hundred  animals.  It  is  erroneous  to  consider 
sheep-farming,  as  it  must  be  ordinarily  conducted,  as  a  matter 
of  direct  profit  from  the  investment  of  capital.  The  amount 
of  money  which  can  ordinarily  be  put  into  sheep  husbandry, 
with  advantage,  by  one  person,  is  so  small  that  it  cannot  be 
properly  called  an  investment  of  capital.  The  consideration 
in  growing  sheep,  except  under  the  purely  pastoral  system, 
is  not  one  of  direct  profit,  to  be  calculated  like  the  dividends 
from  bank  stock ;  but  it  is  the  general  advantage  of  com- 
bining it  with  other  industries  on  the  farm,  of  adding  to  its 
resources,  and  of  making  the  whole  more  productive. 

The  Course  recommended  for  the  South.  —  There  are  two 
very  distinct  branches  of  the  wool-growing  industry.  One  is 
purely  pastoral ;  having  regard  only  to  wool,  taking  but  little 
account  of  the  value  of  the  mutton,  and  none  of  the  improve- 
ment of  the  land.  It  is  conducted  as  an  exclusive  business 
in  large  flocks.  The  sheep  husbandry  of  Texas,  California, 
and  Australia  belongs  to  the  purely  pastoral  system.  It  is 
believed  by  many  that  the  vast  region  of  pine  lands  in  South- 
Eastern  and  Southern  Georgia,  extending  from  Savannah  to 
the  Chattahoochee,  comprising  about  ten  million  acres,  now 
practically  unoccupied,  constitutes  a  natural  pasture,  upon 
which  a  million  of  sheep  could  be  raised  at  a  trifling  expense. 
This  is  the  opinion  of  the  Commissioner  of  Agriculture  of  the 
State. 

Col.  Richard  Peters,  of  Atlanta,  Georgia,  admitted  to  be 
the  highest  authority  on  sheep  husbandry  in  the  State,  in  his 
original  communication,  elsewhere  given  at  length,  speaks  of 
this  district  as  follows :  — 

"  Across  the  entire  width  of  the  State,  there  is  a  belt  of  country  of 
an  extent  northward  from  the  coast  and  the  Florida  line,  say  from  a 
hundred  to  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles.  It  is  the  land  of  the  long-leaf 


30  SHEEP  HUSBANDRY  IN  THE  SOUTH. 

pine  and  the  wire  grass.  Flocks  of  native  sheep,  as  high  as  thirty-five 
hundred  in  number,  are  found  here  and  there,  scattered  over  the  sur- 
face, receiving  but  little  care  or  attention,  except  at  the  annual  gather- 
ing for  shearing  and  marking.  Very  little  can  be  said  either  for  the 
quantity  or  quality  of  the  wool  raised  there.  I  am  aware  that  it  has 
been  claimed  for  this  section  that  its  present  advantages  are  as  great 
for  large  flocks  as  the  ranges  in  Texas  and  California.  I  do  not  sub- 
scribe to  this  opinion.  The  pasturage  of  this  section,  called  wire  grass, 
offers  fine  grazing  for  sheep  in  the  spring ;  but,  for  permanent  and  con- 
tinuous food,  it  cannot  be  relied  on.  A  fair  experiment  in  sheep-raising, 
uniting  good  attention,  selection,  and  crossing,  with  a  determination  to 
secure  the  best  development  in  frame  and  fleece,  has  not  been  made  in 
this  section  for  many  years.  If  it  were  properly  attempted,  by  com- 
bining Bermuda  with  the  wire  grass  for  spring  and  summer  pasture, 
and  red  winter  oats  for  one  or  two  months  in  winter,  for  the  ewes  and 
lambs,  I  think  the  results  would  prove  of  the  most  satisfactory  and 
profitable  character." 

General  Young,  of  North  Carolina,  who,  as  a  practical  wool 
manufacturer,  speaks  with  much  weight,  is  more  sanguine 
than  Mr.  Peters  as  to  the  capacity  of  the  lower  region  for 
sheep  husbandry.  He  says  that,  in  the  tide-water  regions, 
"  the  sheep  find  a  sustaining  pasturage,  the  entire  year,  upon 
the  wire  grass  which  grows  spontaneously  through  the  other- 
wise barren  pine  forests.  Being  thus  independent  of  their 
owners,  they  keep  in  uniform  good  flesh,  grow  to  better  ma- 
turity, and  furnish  better  fleeces  than  in  the  upper  portions  of 
the  State."  By  the  statements  of  General  Gordon  and 
others,  it  appears  that  immense  tracts  of  these  lands  can  be 
obtained  at  from  fifty  cents  to  one  dollar  an  acre.  Having 
been  burned  over  in  former  times  by  the  Indians,  they  are  free 
from  underbrush.  There  is  no  necessity  of  clearing  the  land, 
as  the  pines  may  be  destroyed  by  girdling.  The  land  can  be 
prepared  for  the  required  pasturage  of  winter  oats,  simply  by 
harrowing.  A  great  advantage  of  these  more  southerly  lo- 
calities is  the  facility  for  supplying  early  lambs  for  the  north- 
ern markets.  Even  Texan  flockmasters  with  whom  we  have 
conversed  admit  the  advantages  of  these  lands  for  sheep-grow- 
ing on  a  large  scale. 


SHEEP   HUSBANDRY   IN   THE   SOUTH.  31 

When  intelligent  sheep-farming  is  practised  on  these  now 
waste  pine  lands,  it  is  believed  that  it  will  develop  a  value  in 
them  never  yet  conceived  of.  Sheep-farming  has  made  the 
chalky  downs  of  England,  once  arid  wastes,  gardens  of  ver- 
dure. There  are  no  soils  so  responsive  to  manure  as  those  of 
a  light,  sandy  character.  The  most  productive  lands  in  all 
the  United  States  are  in  Cambridge,  Massachusetts,  where 
the  writer  resides.  Originally  sandy  plains,  bearing  a  few 
pitch-pines,  they  have  been  converted  into  market  gardens. 
Covered  with  glass,  or  hot  beds,  in  the  winter,  and  heaped  up 
with  manure  when  the  glass  is  removed,  they  bear  successive 
crops  through  the  whole  year,  and  yield  as  high  as  four  thou- 
sand dollars  per  acre  in  a  year.  The  Tertiary  lands  of  the 
South  contain  many  elements  wanting  in  our  Northern  pine 
plains  (especially  in  the  subsoil),  as  they  contain  organic  re- 
mains. A  scientific  farmer  in  Louisiana  regards  the  pine  lands, 
when  made  rich  as  they  can  be  with  pine  straw,  folding  sheep, 
and  ploughing  in  green  crops  to  supply  organic  matter,  as  the 
most  pleasant  lands  to  cultivate,  and  the  best  lands  in  the 
State. 

It  is  of  such  land  as  this  that  Longfellow  speaks  in 
"  Evangeline": — 

"Here  no  stony  ground  provokes  the  wrath  of  farmer, 
Smoothly  the  ploughshare  runs  through  the  soil,  like  a  keel  through  the  water." 

Sheep  for  Mixed  Husbandry.  —  The  other  and  more  impor- 
tant branch  of  sheep  husbandry,  in  its  relations  to  the  im- 
provement of  a  country,  is  that  where  the  culture  of  sheep  is 
made  auxiliary  to  a  mixed  husbandry.  The  highest  advan- 
tage of  this  system  is  the  improvement  of  the  land.  As  this 
paper  may  come  under  the  eye  of  persons  less  familiar  with 
the  subject  than  our  habitual  readers,  we  may  be  allowed  to 
repeat  facts  before  stated  in  our  pages. 

Sheep  are  the  only  animals  which  do  not  exhaust  the  land 
upon  which  they  feed,  but  permanently  improve  it.  Horned 
cattle,  especially  cows  in  milk,  by  continued  grazing,  ulti- 
mately exhaust  the  pastures  of  their  phosphates.  In  England, 
the  pastures  of  the  county  of  Chester,  famous  as  a  cheese  dis- 


32  SHEEP   HUSBANDRY   IN   THE   SOUTH. 

trict,  are  kept  up  only  by  the  constant  use  of  bone  dust. 
Sheep,  on  the  other  hand,  through  the  peculiar  nutritiousness 
of  their  manure,  and  the  facility  with  which  it  is  distributed, 
are  found  to  be  the  most  economical  and  certain  means  of 
constantly  renewing  the  productiveness  of  the  land.  By  the 
combination  of  sheep  husbandry  with  wheat-culture,  lands  in 
England,  which,  in  the  time  of  Elizabeth,  produced,  on  an 
average,  six  and  a  half  bushels  of  wheat  per  acre,  produce 
now  over  thirty  bushels.  For  these  reasons,  the  recent  prac- 
tical writers  in  the  Journal  of  the  Royal  Agricultural  Society 
of  England,  pronounce  that,  while  there  is  no  profit  in  grow- 
ing sheep  in  England  simply  for  their  mutton  and  wool,  sheep 
husbandry  is  still  an  indispensable  necessity,  as  the  sole  means 
of  keeping  up  the  land. 

Experience  in  the  United  States  leads  to  similar  conclu- 
sions. Mr.  Stilson,  of  Wisconsin,  by  keeping  sheep,  is  able 
to  raise  his  twenty-four  bushels  of  wheat  to  the  acre,  while 
the  average  yield  of  wheat  in  Wisconsin  is  but  ten  bushels. 
There  are  cases  in  Vermont  where  sheep-farmers  have  been 
compelled  to  abandon  one  farm  after  another,  as  they  became 
too  fertile  for  profitable  sheep-growing.  Mr.  George  Geddes, 
whom  Horace  Greeley  used  to  regard  as  the  highest  authority 
on  agricultural  matters  in  the  State  of  New  York,  and  who 
has  raised  sheep  for  many  years  in  connection  with  wheat, 
says  that,  with  one  sheep  to  the  acre  of  cultivated  land,  pas- 
ture and  meadows,  he  raises  more  bushels  of  grain,  on  the 
average,  than  he  did  when  he  had  no  sheep  to  manufacture 
his  coarse  forage  into  manure,  arid  to  enrich  his  pastures  to 
prepare  them  for  the  grain  crop ;  that  the  land  is  constantly 
improving,  and  the  crop  increasing  in  quantity ;  and  that, 
while  producing  crops  on  less  acres  and  at  less  cost  than  he 
did  before  he  kept  sheep,  he  has,  in  addition,  the  wool  and  the 
mutton  produced  by  the  sheep. 

Mr.  William  Chamberlain,  of  Red  Hook,  Dutchess  County, 
New  York,  celebrated  as  a  grower  of  Silesian  sheep,  purchased 
in  1840  a  farm  in  that  place  of  380  acres,  which  had  been 
used  so  long  for  selling  hay  that  it  was  worn  out.  The  hay 
crop,  in  1841,  was  seventeen  loads ;  forty  acres  of  rye  gave 


SHEEP   HUSBANDRY   IN  THE   SOUTH. 

\s> 

ten  bushels  to  the  acre;  twenty-five  acres- of  corn  averaged 
twenty  bushels  to  the  acre ;  the  rest  of  the  farm,  pastured  two 
horses,  four  oxen,  and  one  cow.  The  land  was  so  poor  that 
it  would  not  raise  red  clover.  By  using  sheep  as  the  pro- 
ducers and  manufacturers  of  manure,  he  made  this  worn-out 
farm  so  productive  that  its  crops  would  be  satisfactory  even 
in  Ohio.  The  product,  in  1866,  was  600  tons  of  hay;  40 
acres  of  Indian  corn,  yielding  50  bushels  to  the  acre  ;  30 
acres  of  wheat,  averaging  15  bushels ;  30  acres  of  oats, 
8  acres  of  roots,  and  the  pasturage  of  300  sheep,  and  of  the 
teams,  cows,  &c.,  necessary  to  carry  on  the  farm  and  to  sup- 
ply the  families  on  it  with  milk  and  butter. 

Mr.  Chamberlain's  plan,  when  he  first  commenced  making 
manure  by  using  sheep,  was  to  spread  it  thinly,  so  as  to  go 
over  all  the  surface  he  could,  and  make  clover  grass ;  and  he 
said  that,  when  he  had  brought  his  land  to  where  it  would 
produce  clover,  improvement  henceforth  was  easy  and  rapid. 
The  sheep  not  only  gave  the  first  impulse,  but  were  all  the 
time  depended  upon  as  the  great  manure-producing  power. 

Now  all  this  can  be  done  by  sheep  at  the  South.  By  their 
use,  even  red  clover,  the  grand  ameliorator  of  land  (which  it 
was  once  declared  could  not  be  grown  at  the  South),  can  be 
made  to  have  the  same  regenerating  influence  which  it  has 
at  the  North.  Even  in  Mississippi,  as  Dr.  Phares  has  asserted 
and  proved,  red  clover  may  be  grown  as  promptly  and  as 
luxuriantly,  and  yield  as  heavy  crops  of  forage,  as  in  any 
portion  of  America. 

Many  of  the  most  intelligent  men  of  the  South  believe 
that  the  exclusive  cultivation  of  cotton  has  been  a  scourge, 
instead  of  a  blessing,  to  their  country :  that,  with  a  crop  of 
over  500,000  bales  of  cotton,  —  worth,  at  15  cents  a  pound, 
$75  per  bale,  —  in  one  State,  Georgia,  its  agricultural  popula- 
tion, as  a  whole,  were  poorer  at  the  end  than  at  the  beginning 
of  the  year :  that  labor  on  a  cotton  plantation  where  a  fall 
crop  is  planted  is  without  intermission  ;  and  that  it  is  excessive 
in  the  quantity  required,  often  exceeding  in  cost  the  whole 
salable  value  of  the  plantation :  that  such  is  the  demand 
for  labor  in  those  sections  in  which  exclusive  cotton  culture 

5 


34  SHEEP    HUSBANDRY   IN   THE   SOUTH. 

is  practised,  that  the  planter  is  compelled  to  take  any  labor 
that  offers,  whether  good,  bad,  or  indifferent;  and  thus  the 
exclusive  cotton-planter  belongs  to  the  negro,  as  the  negro 
once  belonged  to  him  :  that,  if  but  half  the  usual  quantity  of 
cotton  were  planted,  the  value  of  the  crop  would  be  about 
the  same,  and  but  half  the  labor  would  be  required :  that 
by  high  farming,  or  cultivating  with  the  plough,  fewer  acres, 
and  those  only  which  can  be  heavily  manured,  greater  results 
may  be  obtained  with  diminished  labor,  the  cost  being  rather 
in  the  manure  than  in  the  cultivation  ;  and  that  high  farming 
would  be  remunerative  in  the  cotton  States,  with  the  triple 
effect  of  improving  the  soil,  increasing  profits,  and  diminish- 
ing, and  therefore  controlling  and  improving,  the  labor.  None 
of  the  language  in  the  above  paragraphs  is  our  own:  it  is 
literally  taken  from  Southern  writers. 

If  they  speak  correctly,  and  the  Southern  landholder  must 
cultivate  only  the  small  proportion  of  land  which  he  can 
manure  heavily,  what  is  to  become  of  the  rest  of  it?  The 
only  answer  is :  The  rest  may  be  devoted  to  small  grains,  to 
meadow  and  pasture.  To  utilize  the  meadow  and  pasture, 
sheep  can  be  more  profitably  used  at  the  South  than  any 
other  stock.  Cattle  can  be  better  raised  at  the  West.  Dairy 
and  cheese  farming  are  more  difficult  and  more  laborious  than 
sheep  farming.  •  Sheep  culture  has  other  advantages  over 
cattle-raising.  It  gives  annual  dividends  in  the  fleeces.  In- 
deed, the  ewe  gives  two  dividends,  —  her  fleeces  and  her  lambs. 
The  beef-producing  animals  give  no  dividends  ;  and  the  grower 
must  go  on  adding  his  expenses  till  the  end  of  their  lives, 
when  he  must  find  his  compensation  (if  he  can)  in  one  gross 
sum.  The  capital  required  for  the  purchase  of  sheep  — 
enough  stock  for  a  fair  trial  —  is  small.  Large  flocks  are 
not  required. 

Sheep-growing  is  commended  by  other  considerations,  ap- 
parently slight,  but  too  important  to  be  overlooked.  Wool 
never  has  to  seek  a  purchaser.  Poor  or  good,  it  is  eminently 
the  cash  article  on  the  farm.  The  little  addition  from  this 
source  to  the  resources  of  the  farm  affords  a  satisfaction  to 
which  every  wool-growing  farmer  will  testify.  The  absolute 


SHEEP  HUSBANDRY  IN  THE  SOUTH.  85 

enjoyment  the  farmer  has  in  the  care  of  his  flocks  is  no  little 
consideration  ;  neither  is  the  gentle  and  humanizing  influence, 
which  a  love  for  animals  is  well  known  to  exert,  to  be  over- 
looked. If  the  prejudice  still  lingers  that  sheep  culture  is  a 
less  dignified  occupation  than  that  of  cotton-planting,  it 
should  be  dispelled.  The  nobility  of  sheep-growing,  and 
especially  of  sheep-breeding,  is  recognized  by  all  the  advanced 
nations.  The  Empress  Eugenie  took  the  flock  of  Rambouillet 
under  her  special  protection.  France  has  recently  erected  a 
monument  to  Daubenton,  who  first  showed  how  the  culture 
of  the  merino  could  be  made  successful.  The  Queen  of  Eng- 
land takes  pride  in  the  choice  flocks  which  adorn  her  parks. 
The  first  exhibitor  of  wools  at  our  Centennial  was  an  arch- 
duchess. The  princes  of  Hungary  are  as  proud  of  the  fine- 
ness of  their  wools  as  of  their  own  descent.  The  English 
nobleman  values  the  prizes  for  his  perfected  South  Downs  or 
Lincolns  above  all  the  honors  of  the  turf;  and,  at  a  dinner 
of  the  landed  gentry,  the  topic  of  sheep  and  turnips  takes 
precedence  of  all  other  table-talk.  With  such  recognitions, 
sheep  husbandry  has  no  need  of  urging  its  claims  to  a  place 
of  honor  on  the  plantation  of  the  South. 

Precisely  how  sheep-farming  in  connection  with  the  cotton 
culture  is  to  be  carried  on,  we  would  not  presume  to  indicate. 
Fortunately,  we  have  a  Southern  man  —  Mr.  Howard,  before 
quoted,  and  whose  high  authority  as  a  scientific  and  practical 
farmer  is  well  recognized  in  Georgia  —  to  illustrate  the  appli- 
cation of  diversified  husbandry  to  the  cotton  culture.  He 
submits  the  following  rotation  of  crops,  in  connection  with 
sheep-growing,  as  suited  to  the  agricultural  condition  of  the 
South:  — 

11  We  will  suppose  a  farm  of  500  acres  of  open  land  under  fence. 
Let  250  acres  be  devoted  to  arable  purposes,  and  the  rest  to  grazing. 
The  rotation  might  be  as  follows :  1,  Cotton  and  corn,  in  the  same 
field,  in  suitable  proportions ;  2,  oats,  sown  in  August,  on  the  cotton 
and  corn  land;  3,  rye,  or  rye  and  wheat,  sown  in  September,  the 
land  having  been  twice  ploughed,  in  order  to  kill  the  permanent  oats  ; 
4  and  5,  clover,  if  the  land  is  in  sufficient  heart  to  produce  it ;  if  not, 
the  fourth  year  rest  ungrazed,  and  the  fifth  year  sheep  and  cattle  penned 


36  SHEEP   HUSBANDRY  IN   THE  SOUTH. 

upon  it ;  every  night  during  the  year,  using  a  portable  fence.  An  ordi- 
nary farm  of  500  acres  will  support  500  sheep,  besides  the  crops  in 
the  above  rotation.  The  oats  and  rye  will  feed  them  during  the 
winter  nearly  or  entirely  without  injury  to  the  grain.  Five  hands 
would  be  sufficient  to  work  such  a  farm  and  take  care  of  the  live- 
stock. 

"  During  the  first  year,  the  following  results  might  be  expected  from 
an  ordinary  farm  without  manure  :  — 

25  acres  in  cotton,  12  bags,  at  15  cents $900.00 

25  acres  in  corn,  250  bushels,  at  $1 250.00 

50  acres  in  oats,  600  bushels,  at  80  cents 400.00 

25  acres  in  rye,  200  bushels,  at  $1 200.00 

25  acres  in  wheat,  150  bushels,  at  §1.50 225.00 

Increase  and  mutton  sales  of  500  sheep 500.00 

Wool,  3  pounds  per  head,  at  33  cents  per  pound    ....  500.00 

Manure,  at  $1  per  head 500.00 

$3,475.00 

"  Separately,  each  of  these  products  is  small ;  still  the  aggregate 
result  is  more  than  $600  per  hand.  Yet  this  is  nearly  three  times 
the  average  product  per  hand  in  the  cotton  States. 

"  The  farm  products  given  in  the  case  above  supposed  are  the  result 
of  the  first  year's  rotation.  The  next  year,  the  cotton  and  the  corn 
would  be  more  than  double,  by  penning  500  sheep  at  night  on  50  acres. 
It  is  the  writer's  experience  that  10  sheep,  regularly  penned,  will  manure 
50  acres.  Two  hundred  would  therefore  manure,  well,  50  acres.  The 
appearance  of  the  ground  would  not  indicate  this  high  manuring ;  but 
it  should  be  remembered,  that  liquid  manure  (which  is  equal  in  value 
to  the  solid)  is  not  visible.  ...  At  the  end  of  the  fifth  year  of  this 
rotation,  the  change  in  the  farm  would  be  equal  almost  to  a  trans- 
formation ;  the  crops  having  doubled  or  trebled,  without  (which  is  a 
most  important  point)  any  material  increase  of  labor  or  other  ex- 
pense." 

The  accuracy  of  the  estimates  above  given,  we  do  not  vouch 
for.  As  we  have  said  before,  all  definite  estimates  of  profits 
in  any  industry  are  liable  to  be  fallacious.  They  are  submit- 
ted only  for  illustration.  The  best  hand-books  of  art  can  do 
hardly  any  thing  more  than  suggest,  and  excite  the  reader 
to  apply  his  own  intelligence  to  the  particular  problem  which 
he  desires  to  solve.  The  more  general  statement  of  an- 
other, Mr.  Peters,  may  be  more  safe.  He  is  experienced  in 


SHEEP  HUSBANDRY  IN  THE  SOUTH.  37 

sheep,  and  commends  their  employment  in  connection  with 
the  culture  of  cotton.     He  says  :  — 

"  In  the  middle  part  of  the  State  of  Georgia,  the  Bermuda  grass 
prevails ;  and,  under  the  cotton  system  of  culture,  it  was  the  dread 
and  bane  of  the  planter :  but  now,  for  its  nutritious  qualities  and  com- 
pactness of  sod,  it  is  considered  by  our  people  as  valuable  and  reliable 
as  any  grass,  not  excepting  the  Kentucky  blue  grass.  It  will  offer 
sheep  the  very  best  of  pasturage  for  six  months  of  the  year,  in  this 
section  of  the  State  ;  and,  if  managed  as  on  the  pastures  of  Kentucky, 
for  the  entire  year.  In  Putnam,  Hancock,  Wilkes,  and  adjoining  coun- 
ties (formerly  the  el  dorado  cotton  country  of  Georgia),  where  the 
Bermuda  has  taken  possession,  there  is  a  future  for  successful  sheep 
husbandry :  providing,  of  course,  the  supervision  be  intelligent,  and  the 
business  properly  conducted,  and  combined  with  cotton  culture,  the 
result  must  prove  highly  remunerative,  —  far  surpassing  any  thing 
in  the  past  history  of  this  industry  in  New  England  or  the  Middle 
States." 

In  regard  to  the  general  culture  of  sheep  at  the  South, 
independently  of  its  relation  to  any  particular  locality,  he 
observes : — 

"  In  reference  to  the  whole  matter  of  sheep  husbandry  at  the  South, 
in  which  neither  labor,  care,  nor  expense  has  been  spared  by  me,  I  may 
say  with  safety :  I  know  of  no  investment  so  likely  to  yield  constant 
and  profitable  return  to  the  farmer ;  and,  certainly,  none  so  valuable 
to  the  acres  he  occupies.  I  think  the  State  of  Georgia,  from  its 
varied  climate,  soil,  and  surface,  offers  unequalled  facilities  for  this 
industry. 

"  My  own  experience  has  been  to  a  great  extent  in  North  or  upper 
Georgia,  in  Gordon  County.  The  country  is  hill  and  valley,  the 
land  changing  very  rapidly ;  the  pasturage,  sedge,  crab,  and  other 
native  grasses.  Of  the  cultivated,  the  orchard  grass,  red  and  white 
clover,  on  the  upland,  and  red  top,  on  low  land,  succeed  admirably. 
Lucerne  and  German  millet  are  never-failing  sources  of  an  ample  sup- 
ply of  hay.  The  former  afford  from  four  to  five  cuttings  in  a  season. 
Red,  rust-proof  oats  —  a  variety  reliable  in  winter,  if  sown  in  Septem- 
ber—  can  be  pastured  during  the  winter  and  early  spring,  and  then 
yield  a  full  crop  of  grain.  The  same  may  be  said  of  barley,  rye,  and 
wheat. 


38  SHEEP  HUSBANDRY  IN  THE  SOUTH. 

"  The  breeds  I  have  tested  are  the  Spanish  and  French  merinos, 
South  Downs,  Oxfordshire  Down,  Leicester,  Asiatic  broad-tail,  or 
Tunsian,  Improved  Kentucky  Cotswold,  and  native  sheep.  I  have 
also  crossed  nearly  all  of  these  varieties.  Those  between  the  Spanish 
merinos  and  native,  and  the  Cotswold  and  native,  have  proved  most 
profitable.  My  present  varieties  are  the  thorough-bred  merinos  and 
Cots  wolds,  and  crosses  between  these  two. 

"For  general  purposes  of  wool  and  mutton,  I  recommend  most 
decidedly  the  cross  from  the  native  ewes  and  Spanish  merino  bucks ; 
the  progeny  showing  marked  improvement,  having  constitution,  fat- 
tening properties,  thriftiness,  and  a  close,  compact  fleece. 

"If  the  winters  are  mild,  my  flocks  require  feeding  about  thirty 
days ;  if  cold  and  wet,  twice  that  time.  My  merino  sheep  are  very 
healthy.  They  have  had  trouble  with  the  sheep  bot-fly ;  but  I  have 
found  a  liberal  use  of  tar  a  perfect  preventive. 

"In  all  well  selected  and  well  managed  flocks,  the  increase  and 
manure  will  amply  pay  all  expenses,  and  leave  the  fleece  clear  profit. 
The  fleeces  of  my  flocks,  not  housed  at  night,  will  give  an  average  of 
seven  pounds  of  wool  to  the  head. 

"  The  future  history  of  the  sheep  husbandry  of  this  State,  if  intelli- 
gently pursued  in  accordance  with  its  natural  divisions,  will  show 
three  distinct  systems ;  that  of  Northern  Georgia  will  somewhat 
resemble  the  industry  in  Ohio,  Pennsylvania,  New  York,  and  New 
England  ;  that  of  the  middle  of  the  State,  Kentucky ;  and  that  of 
the  Southern  portion  (with  shepherds  and  dogs),  Texas,  Colorado,  and 
California." 

In  order  that  Southern  gentlemen  who  may  see  this  paper 
should  have  the  views  of  a  thoroughly  practical  farmer  and 
expert  in  sheep  husbandry  at  the  North,  we  have  requested 
Mr.  William  G.  Markham,  of  Avon,  New  York,  President  of 
the  New  York  State  Wool-Growers'  Association,  and  Secre- 
tary of  the  National  Wool-Growers'  Association  of  the  United 
States  (whom  we  have  had  the  privilege  of  consulting  daily 
during  the  preparation  of  this  paper),  to  give  some  sugges- 
tions in  furtherance  of  the  object  of  improving  and  extending 
sheep  culture  at  the  South,  and  particularly  as  to  the  breed 
of  sheep  most  desirable  in  that  section.  He  has  replied  to 
this  request  as  follows  :  — 


SHEEP   HUSBANDRY  IN   THE   SOUTH.  39 

AVON,  NEW  YOKK,  April  21,  1878. 

DEAR  SIR,  —  You  ask  my  views  of  improved  sheep  husbandry,  and 
its  adaptability  to  the  South.  My  personal  experience  as  a  breeder  of 
sheep  has  been  mainly  with  American  merinos,  in  Western  New  York  ; 
though  I  have  bred  Cots  wolds  and  other  long- wool  varieties  to  some 
extent. 

In  my  immediate  vichyty  are  some  of  the  most  skilful  and  success- 
ful breeders  of  American  merinos  in  this  country.  I  have  at  all  times 
been  quite  familiar  with  their  flocks,  and  watched  with  greatest  care 
and  interest  the  results  of  the  different  experiments  in  management 
and  breeding. 

The  little,  light-fleeced  foreigners  imported  from  Spain,  between  A.D. 
1800  and  1813,  by  Colonel  Humphreys,  Consul  Jarvis,  and  others, 
were  transformed  by  Messrs.  Atwood  of  Connecticut,  Hammond  of 
Vermont,  and  others,  into  a  type  of  sheep  so  far  superior,  in  constitu- 
tion, form,  and  weight  of  fleece,  and  altogether  so  widely  different  from 
the  original  importation,  as  to  be  regarded  a  distinct  variety ;  and,  in 
justice  to  our  breeders,  the  word  Spanish  was  dropped,  and  the  term 
American  merinos  applied  to  them. 

To  continue  this  improvement  in  our  stud  flocks,  a  system  for  iden- 
tifying and  individualizing  the  sheep  has  been  inaugurated,  by  placing 
a  permanent  metallic  label  in  the  ear  of  each  sheep,  containing  its 
flock  number;  and  an  accurate  record  is  made  of  the  general  charac- 
teristics of  each  sheep,  giving  weight  of  fleece,  length  and  quality  of 
staple,  form,  and  breeding  qualities,  &c.,  and  preserving  the  pedigree 
of  each  individual  for  a  public  register.  This  additional  care  has  ena- 
bled our  breeders  to  attain  greater  and  more  valuable  fleeces  than  ever 
before  produced  from  this  variety  of  sheep.  Our  flocks  are  small, 
usually  containing  from  fifty  to  one  hundred  breeding  ewes  :  the  clip  of 
which  will,  in  some  instances,  average  upwards  of  fifteen  pounds  each, 
while  selections  of  ewes  not  in  breeding  often  shear  as  high  as  eighteen 
to  twenty -two  pounds,  unwashed ;  which  scour  from  six  to  seven  and  a 
half  pounds.  The  live  weight  of  these  ewes  reaches  ninety  to  one  hun- 
dred and  thirty  pounds.  The  stock  rams  produce  from  twenty-six 
pounds  to  thirty-six  pounds ;  yielding  about  the  same  proportion  of 
scoured  wool,  weight  one  hundred  and  fifty  pounds  to  one  hundred  and 
ninety  pounds. 

And  these  sheep  are  the  direct  descendants,  without  admixture  of 
other  blood,  of  the  importations  from  Spain  prior  to  1813,  which  gave 
three  to  five  pounds  unwashed  wool  from  ewes,  and  seven  to  nine 
pounds  from  rams. 


40  SHEEP   HUSBANDRY  IN  THE  SOUTH. 

Our  market  for  these  sheep,  of  late,  has  been  in  the  South  and  West ; 
principally  California,  Colorado,  New  Mexico,  and  Texas.  It  has  been 
the  especial  study  of  our  breeders  to  produce  such  rams  as,  when 
crossed  upon  the  common  or  native  sheep  of  those  sections,  will  pro- 
duce the  most  valuable  results  in  wool  and  mutton. 

The  great  bulk  of  all  wool  used  is  merino  clothing  wool;  requir- 
ing strong  fibre,  of  medium  length  and  fineness. 

It  is  unquestionably  true,  that  cultivating  the  finest  quality  of  wool 
has  a  tendency  to  produce  effeminacy,  resulting  in  a  fine-boned,  deli- 
cate sheep. 

It  is  also  the  experience  of  our  breeders  that  great  length  of  staple 
is  incompatible  with  density  of  fleece.  In  breeding  for  great  length  of 
staple,  we  do  so  at  a  sacrifice  of  density  which,  of  all  characteristics,  is 
most  difficult  to  secure  and  retain.  In  no  other  way  can  so  much  be 
accomplished  in  this  direction  as  by  the  use  of  wrinkly  rams. 

The  most  desirable  type  of  sheep  for  the  wool-growing  sections  of 
the  South  and  West  must  possess,  fast,  constitution.  This  implies  a 
broad,  deep  chest,  strong  heavy-boned  legs,  large  feet,  broad  short 
head  and  nose,  after  thes  bull-dog  pattern,  and  carcass  modelled  as 
nearly  after  a  short-horn  bull  as  possible. 

In  fleece,  one  of  the  most  important  considerations  is  density :  which 
better  protects  the  sheep  from  storms,  and  the  wool  from  dirt ;  gives 
greater  weight  of  fleece ;  and,  in  hot  climates,  better  protects  the  yolk 
necessary  for  a  healthy  growth  of  wool. 

It  is  the  impression  of  our  sheep  men  that  Northern  sheep,  when 
taken  South,  shear  much  lighter  fleeces  than  at  home ;  and  that,  to 
keep  up  the  weight  of  their  flocks'  fleeces,  rams  must  be  bred  North. 

The  fleece  should  be  even  over  the  entire  body,  covering  well  the 
head,  legs,  and  belly ;  and  of  medium  quality,  suitable  for  clothing 
wools. 

It  is  the  aim  of  our  breeders  to  furnish  rams  which  will  soonest 
produce  this  type  of  sheep  when  crossed  upon  the  light,  dry,  thin- 
fleeced  native  Mexican  and  Texas  sheep. 

Much  has  been  said  by  wool  merchants,  and  even  wool-growers  who 
are  ignorant  of  the  true  theory  of  our  breeding,  against  the  wrinkly, 
greasy,  dirty-looking  modern  American  merinos. 

Even  Dr.  Randall,  —  who,  in  his  day,  was  the  highest  known  author- 
ity on  sheep  matters,  —  in  his  "  Practical  Shepherd  "  denounced  these 
exaggerated  types  of  this  class  of  sheep  as  "  an  unmitigated  nuisance ; " 
and  yet  the  experience  of  the  doctor  subsequently  convinced  him  that 
he  was  in  error,  and  that  in  no  other  way  could  radical  defects  in  a 


SHEEP   HUSBANDRY   IN   THE   SOUTH.  41 

flock  be  remedied  so  advantageously  as  by  the  use  of  a  ram  possessing 
the  desired  characteristics  in  an  exaggerated  form.  This  he  freely  ad- 
mitted, and  he  used  upon  his  own  flock  of  choice-breeding  ewes  one  of 
the  most  wrinkly  and  greasy  rams  it  has  ever  been  my  good  fortune 
to  see ;  and  this  to  retrieve  what  he  had  lost  in  density  and  weight 
of  fleece  by  the  use  of  long-stapled,  plain,  fine-fleeced  rams. 

Breeding  improved  sheep  in  Western  New  York  is  quite  unlike 
wool-growing  in  the  Southern  States.  To  succeed  in  either,  a  uni- 
form supply  of  nutritious  food  and  drink  must  be  supplied,  and  sheep 
kept  thriving  every  day  in  the  year. 

In  introducing  sheep  husbandry  in  the  South,  where  wool  is  the 
main  object  and  mutton  an  auxiliary,  the  most  profitable  sheep  to  breed 
is  unquestionably  the  type  I  have  described,  resulting  from  a  cross  of 
American  merino  upon  the  native  sheep  of  the  land. 

In  the  vicinity  of  large  towns,  where  early  lambs  or  mutton  may  be 
more  profitably  grown,  the  Cotswold  should  be  used  upon  the  second 
or  third  cross  of  merinos  upon  natives ;  the  Cotswold  being  more 
hardy  than  any  other  of  our  mutton  sheep,  and  yet  not  as  hardy  as 
the  resultant  cross  with  merinos.  In  whatever  line  one  is  breeding,  the 
SHEEP  is  of  first  consideration  ;  second,  take  care  of  the  sheep,  and  you 
make  a  success.  Very  truly  yours, 

WILLIAM  G.  MARKHAM. 

The  Culture  of  Long-woolled  Sheep  and  of  other  Lanigerous 
Animals.  —  The  formation  of  flocks  of  merino  sheep,  by 
grading  them  up  from  a  foundation  of  the  native  stock,  is 
recommended  for  the  greater  part  of  the  South,  as  the  chief 
product  will  be  wool ;  which,  being  so  easily  transportable, 
can  be  grown  profitably,  without  reference  to  accessibility  to 
markets.  The  vicinity  to  large  cities,  unusual  railroad  facili- 
ties, or  the  command  of  permanent  pastures  of  unusual  rich- 
ness, admit  of  another  branch  of  sheep  husbandry,  in  which 
the  principal  object  is  large  and  early  lambs.  For  this  class 
of  sheep  husbandry,  the  English  races  of  sheep  —  the  Lei- 
cesters,  Lincolns,  Cotswolds,  and  Downs,  and  varieties  of 
the  Cheviot —  are  specially  fitted.  An  important  incident 
to  the  culture  of  these  varieties  is  the  production  of  the  long- 
combing  wools  now  in  so  great  demand  for  the  worsted  manu- 
facture. The  worsted  manufacture  of  this  country,  ten  years 
ago  of  a  value  not  exceeding  ten  millions,  now  annually  ex- 


42  SHEEP   HUSBANDRY   IN   THE   SOUTH. 

ceeds  twenty  millions,  of  dollars.  Our  principal  supply  of 
these  wools  formerly  came  from  Canada.  Now  the  produc- 
tion is  declining  in  Canada,  and  rapidly  increasing  in  the 
United  States.  The  successful  production  of  the  long-comb- 
ing wools  is  limited  to  the  populous  districts,  where  there  is  a 
demand  for  mutton,  and  where  there  is  an  improved  agricul- 
ture. Therefore,  while  the  production  of  fine  merino  wools 
in  this  country  is  liable  to  be  affected  by  the  competition  of 
the  vast  pastoral  regions  of  the  Southern  Hemisphere,  and, 
without  defensive  duties,  would  be  certainly  overwhelmed, 
there  is  no  probability  of  over-production  in  the  growth  of 
combing  wool.  As  a  general  rule,  the  English  long-woolled 
races  are  adapted  only  for  situations  where  the  lands  are  rich, 
not  subject  to  drought,  fitted  for  root  culture,  and  where 
good  city  markets  are  easily  accessible.  It  would  seem,  then, 
that  there  are  but  few  situations  at  the  South,  or  that  portion 
of  the  Southern  country  which  we  have  hitherto  in  view, 
where  the  English  races  could  be  cultivated  to  advantage. 
Mr.  Peters  is  of  opinion  that  the  more  elevated  country  of 
the  Southern  States  is  well  adapted  to  these  sheep ;  as,  he 
says,  that  the  influx  of  the  English  combing  wools  "  would 
keep,  for  many  generations,  the  fair  Blue  Ridge  of  the  South 
without  sheepwalks,  though  it  is  by  nature  one  of  the  most 
favored  spots  in  America  for  this  class  of  wools."  A  milder 
climate  than  that  of  the  North  is  required  for  the  successful 
culture  of  the  most  important  of  the  long-woolled  English 
races,  —  the  Leicester.  The  universal  testimony  at  the  North 
is  that  the  climate,  generally,  is  too  severe  for  the  Leicesters, 
and  therefore  the  hardier  Cotswolds  are  preferred.  Leicester 
wools,  pronounced  to  be  equal  to  the  best  English,  have  been 
produced  in  Ohio,  on  the  southern  border  of  Lake  Erie. 
But  the  climate  is  modified  by  the  lake,  and  this  is  peculiarly 
a  region  of  the  vine.  The  wool  of  the  Cotswold  is  too  coarse 
for  many  worsted  fabrics,  and  has  neither  the  fineness  nor 
the  lustre  of  the  Leicester.  Greater  fineness  in  the  Cotswold 
fleece  may  be  produced,  as  has  been  done  in  Kentucky  and 
Tennessee,  by  a  slight  infusion  of  merino  blood  ;  but  the 
highly  important  quality  of  lustre,  such  as  is  wanted  for 


SHEEP   HUSBANDRY   IN   THE   SOUTH.  43 

the  so-called  black  mohair  and  brilliantine  fabrics,  can  be 
imparted  only  by  Leicester  or  Lincoln  blood.  Besides,  the 
Leicester  is  the  most  valuable  of  all  mutton  sheep  for  crossing, 
and  imparts  its  precocity,  —  that  is,  its  capacity  of  fattening 
in  one  year,  and  of  reaching  full  growth  in  two  years,  —  and, 
therefore,  its  mutton-producing  capacity,  to  all  other  races. 
Where  there  are  rich,  sweet  pastures,  with  quantity  in  a 
small  space,  and  a  moderate  climate,  the  Leicester  will  thrive. 
Such  localities  must  exist  at  least  in  Kentucky  or  Tennessee, 
and  there  the  Leicester  should  be  introduced. 

Kentucky  Sheep.  — Whatever  may  be  the  possibilities  of  the 
Blue  Ridge  region  for  growing  the  long-woolled  races,  the 
ultra-montane  regions  of  Tennessee,  and  especially  Kentucky, 
are  the  only  fields  at  the  South  where  actual  success  has  been 
achieved  on  any  considerable  scale.  This  may  be  due  to  geo- 
logical formations  existing  in  those  States.  It  has  been  ob- 
served, that  the  geological  map  of  England  exhibits  an  exact 
chart  of  the  distribution  of  British  sheep ;  and  Professor 
Shaler,  the  able  Professor  of  Geology  at  Harvard  College, 
has  observed  to  the  writer,  that  the  capacity  of  Kentucky 
for  mutton-sheep  husbandry  is  strictly  limited  by  the  geologi- 
cal features  of  that  State.  Kentucky  mutton,  produced  by 
her  long-woolled  sheep,  invariably  appears  in  the  choice 
menus  of  city  hotels  at  the  North.  Its  consumption  is  enor- 
mous. There  are  stalls  at  the  Faneuil  Hall  Market,  in  Bos- 
ton, where  nothing  is  sold  but  Kentucky  mutton. 

We  have  obtained  the  following  statement  from  an  intelli- 
gent gentleman  in  Boston  *  :  — 

BOSTON,  April  19,  1878. 

I  have  not  forgotten  your  request  in  regard  to  Kentucky  sheep. 
Through  an  introduction  from  Mr.  Terry,  the  inspector  of  provisions, 
I  have  been  placed  in  communication  with  the  two  largest  dealers  in 
mutton  in  this  city. 

Yesterday  afternoon,  I  went  to  the  abbattoir  in  Brighton,  and  saw 
both  of  these  gentlemen,  from  whom  I  obtained  the  following  facts :  — 

During  the  year  ending  May  1,  1877,  272,000  sheep  and  lambs 
were  slaughtered  at  the  Brighton  abbattoir.  This  supplies  the  Bos- 

*  William  A.  Hayes,  Jr.,  Counsellor-at-law,  No.  41  Sears  Building,  Boston. 


44  SHEEP   HUSBANDRY  IN  THE  SOUTH. 

ton  market,  the  neighboring  towns,  and  many  of  them  are  sent  to  the 
surrounding  cities,  —  Portsmouth,  Concord,  Fall  River,  and  Manchester. 
There  are,  of  course,  a  large  number  of  dressed  sheep  sent  to  the  Bos- 
ton market  from  other  places,  not  included  in  this  number. 

In  regard  to  Kentucky  sheep,  my  informant  —  one  of  the  gentlemen 
referred  to,  who  does  not  desire  his  name  to  be  published  —  tells  me 
that  about  20,000  are  annually  sent  to  this  market.  This  includes,  as 
I  understand,  all  the  sheep  from  Kentucky.  Before  the  war,  the  sheep 
sent  from  this  State,  though  less  in  number,  were  superior  to  those  now 
sent;  being  almost  all  full-blooded  Leicesters,  Cotswolds,  or  South 
Downs.  Lately,  many  of  these  long-woolled  sheep  have  been  crossed 
with  the  native  mountain  or  "  Tennessee  ewes,"  which  are  of  an  inferior 
grade.  The  principal  supply  of  sheep  for  this  market,  from  Kentucky, 
comes  from  four  counties  [of  course,  the  blue-grass  counties.  — Ed.~\. 

The  first-class  Kentucky  sheep  will  weigh  about  150  pounds.  Lots 
will  average  from  125  to  150  pounds.  Kentucky  sheep,  dressed,  bring 
two  dollars  per  hundred  more  than  ordinary  sheep. 

The  price  of  Kentucky  lambs  is  as  follows:  from  June  1st  to  July 
1st,  about  eight  cents;  from.  July  1st  to  August  1st,  about  seven  cents. 
The  sheep  average  about  six  cents,  live  weight.  Ordinary  New-England 
sheep  average  about  four  and  a  half  cents,  live  weight. 

My  informant  says  that  many  of  his  best  sheep  come  from  Ohio 
and  Canada. 

I  saw,  in  the  pens  at  Brighton,  some  very  fine  Kentucky  sheep,  just 
received,  and  some  excellent  sheep  from  Michigan.  In  the  latter  State, 
the  merino  is  crossed  with  a  long-woolled  sheep,  which  increases  the 
size  of  the  animal,  and  improves  the  mutton. 

My  informant  has  agents  in  various  parts  of  the  country,  —  in  Cov- 
ington,  St.  Louis,  Ohio,  and  other  places ;  and  does  an  immense  business, 
amounting  in  one  year  as  high  as  245,000  sheep.  He  thinks  that  the  na- 
tional encouragement  of  sheep  and  wool  production  will  lead  to  an  im- 
mense export  of  mutton,  and  that  we  shall  supply  England  and  the 
rest  of  Europe  with  all  that  they  can  take.  Since  December  1st,  he  has 
killed  and  exported  from  New  York  2,500  sheep  per  week.  He  pre- 
dicts, that,  in  the  course  of  a  few  years,  the  character  of  the  business 
will  change  in  Boston,  and  will  become  like  that  of  Chicago ;  the  "  tail 
end"  only  of  the  supply  remaining  here,  the  best  animals  being 
exported  to  Europe.  He  also,  without  any  suggestion  from  me,  stated 
that  the  South  is  to  become  a  great  sheep-producing  country ;  and  that 
there  sheep  could  be  produced  more  cheaply  than  in  Ohio  and  the 
West. 


SHEEP    HUSBANDRY   IN   THE   SOUTH.  45 

Connected  with  the  slaughter-houses  at  Brighton  are  immense  refrig- 
erators, where  the  animals  slaughtered  can  be  kept  for  a  long  time. 
The  same  system  is  now  introduced  on  board  ship,  rendering  the 
transportation  of  fresh  meat  a  very  easy  matter. 

I  was  astonished  at  the  extent  of  the  abbattoir,  and  the  system  which 
pervades  the  establishment.  There  is  nothing  lost,  and  the  greatest 
cleanliness  prevails.  The  hoofs  and  shin-bones,  after  having  the  oil 
extracted  from  them,  are  sent  to  Europe,  and  used  in  the  manufacture 
of  buttons,  &c.  The  fat  is  tried  out  in  large  boilers,  and  converted 
into  tallow.  The  blood  and  scraps  of  meat  are  dried,  and  the  heads 
ground  into  bone-dust ;  the  whole  being  converted  into  the  Stockbridge 
fertilizers,  which  are  manufactured  in  a  large  building  near  the  abbat- 
toir. All  disagreeable  fumes  arising  from  the  rendering  process  are 
conducted  into  a  large  chimney,  and  there  consumed.  Nothing  goes 
into  the  river  but  pure  water. 

I  may  mention,  that  I  saw  two  or  three  sheep  wandering  about  the 
yards,  apparently  quite  at  home  and  very  tame.  These,  I  was  informed, 
were  "  flock  leaders,"  and  used  to  lead  the  flocks  of  sheep  which  come 
by  the  cars,  to  any  desired  place.  They  are  thoroughly  trained,  and 
are  considered  very  valuable. 

The  peculiar  capacity  for  growing  mutton  sheep  in  certain 
parts  of  Kentucky  is  given  by  the  limestone  soils,  which  pro- 
duce permanent  pastures  of  the  nutritious  blue  grass.  Indeed, 
large  size  in  all  animals  is  a  characteristic  of  this  country. 
This  has  been  attributed  to  the  calcareous  character  of  the 
soil,  which,  supplying  material  for  bone,  favors  the  enlarge- 
ment of  the  skeletons  of  all  animals.  The  reports  to  the 
Agricultural  Department  say  that  no  property  in  Kentucky 
pays  better  than  sheep.  One  correspondent  says,  that  "  the 
best  results  are  from  grades  of  the  native  with  the  full-blooded 
Cotswold  breed.  Three  crosses  will  make  a  good  flock.  Full 
bloods  do  not  herd  well.  Only  a  small  number  can  be  kept 
together,  —  say  thirty.  If  large,  the  flocks  of  full-bloods  dete- 
riorate." This  corresponds  with  the  experience  in  Canada. 
The  enormous  production  of  Canada  long-combing  wools  is 
furnished  by  flocks  of  from  twenty  to  fifty  head,  very  rarely 
equalling  that  number.  The  most  profitable  mutton  sheep  is 
said  by  another  correspondent  to  be  the  Cotswold  crossed 
with  the  Southdown. 


46  SHEEP   HUSBANDRY  IN  THE   SOUTH. 

A  correspondent  from  Trumble  County  makes  the  following 
statement :  — 

"  We  feed  only  when  the  snow  is  deep ;  the  balance  of  the  winter 

sheep  do  well  on  blue  grass.    There  are  no  wild  grasses  in  the  county. 

"  The  following  are  the  results  with  a  flock  of  sixty  good  sheep :  — 

59  Cotswold  ewes,  which  cost  $8  per  head $472.00 

One  buck  cost  $25 .  25.00 

Feed  in  the  winter,  3  tons  of  hay 24.00 

Pasturage  in  summer,  $1  per  head 60.00 

Salt 1.00 

Shearing  per  head,  10  cents 6.00 

For  attending  to  flock 20.00 

Total  cost $60800 

Clip  per  head,  6  pounds  at  30  cents $180.00 

58  lambs,  at  $4  per  head 232.00 

Manure  from  60  head  of  sheep 30.00 

$442.00 
By  deducting  the  cost  of  keeping  the  sheep $136.00 

Leaves $300.00 

The  net  profit  on  an  investment  of  $497.00." 

The  most  eminent  breeder  in  Kentucky  of  the  long-woolled 
sheep  is  Mr.  Robert  W.  Scott,  of  Kentucky,  who  claims  to 
have  created  a  new  permanent  race,  which  bears  the 'name 
of  "  improved  Kentucky."  From  the  published  accounts 
which  Mr.  Scott  has  given  of  his  procedure  in  creating  this 
breed,  it  appears  that  the  object  he  had  in  view  was  to  obtain 
the  form  and  delicacy  of  mutton  of  the  Southdown,  and  the 
weight  and  length  of  fleece  of  the  Cotswold,  with  the  thickness 
and  softness  of  the  merino.  His  method  was  the  infusion,  from 
time  to  time,  of  the  blood  of  each  of  these  races,  according  to 
the  quality  which  he  desired  to  have  predominate.  Although 
it  is  not  in  accordance  with  the  generally  recognized  princi- 
ples of  zootechny  that  a  permanent  race  could  be  thus  created, 
having  the  best  attributes  of  all  its  ancestors,  as  there  is  con- 
stant tendency  to  reversion  to  the  strongest  race,  Mr.  Scott 
claims  that  his  breed  has  become  permanent,  constantly  re- 
producing itself ;  that,  in  1866,  the  sheep  had  become  essen- 


SHEEP   HUSBANDRY   IN   THE   SOUTH.  47 

tially  alike  and  uniform,  maintaining  their  identity  and 
imparting  their  qualities  as  surely  as  any  other  breed.  So 
highly  are  they  esteemed  that  he  has  found  ready  sale  for 
all  that  he  could  produce  from  a  flock  of  a  hundred  ewes,  at 
the  uniform  price  of  thirty  dollars.  He  claims  that  they  are 
peculiarly  adapted  to  the  South,  as  they  need  no  housing. 
They  are  able  to  face  the  bleakest  winter  in  Kentucky,  with- 
out any  protection. 

The  great  Silurian  limestone  basin  of  Middle  Tennessee 
would  seem  to  possess  equal  advantages  with  the  last-named 
State  for  growing  the  long-woolled  sheep.  Mr.  Killebrew, 
Commissioner  of  Agriculture  of  the  State  of  Tennessee,  in 
the  advance  sheets  from  a  work  on  Sheep  Husbandry,  just 
published  by  him,  thus  describes  this  district :  — 

"  There  the  meadows  are  luxuriant,  the  pastures  are  green,  the  soil  is 
fertile,  the  water  abundant.  .  .  .  There  all  the  grasses  flourish ;  even  the 
loftiest  hills  are  set  in  blue  grass,  and  countless  flocks  fleck  the  landscape 
on  every  side.  The  highest  evidence  that  can  be  adduced  as  to  the 
value  of  this  basin  for  sheep-raising  lies  in  the  fact,  that  sheep  are 
grown  upon  nearly  every  farm,  and,  up  to  a  certain  number,  are  uni- 
versally held  to  be  profitable.  Sheep  require  no  feeding  in  this  division 
during  winter,  when  upon  good  grass,  barley,  wheat,  or  rye  fields, 
except  when  there  is  a  fall  of  snow.  Then  some  oats,  fodder,  or  corn 
is  fed.  They  are  very  healthy ;  and,  indeed,  when  attended  to,  prove  a 
most  profitable  investment,  up  to  a  certain  number,  —  say  one  sheep  for 
every  five  acres  of  open  land,  or  two  sheep  on  every  acre  of  permanent 
pasture,  presuming  that  the  farmer  will  have  other  stock  in  proportion 
to  the  size  of  his  farm. 

"  The  cost  of  keeping  sheep  per  annum  is  about  $1.25.  The  wool 
of  one  sheep  of  high  grade  will  about  pay  for  the  keeping  of  two. 
Lambs  are  a  clear  profit,  and  the  estimated  cost  of  wool  is  below  ten 
cents  per  pound.  The  average  yield  of  wool  for  improved  lands  in 
this  basin  is  between  seven  and  eight  pounds.  Nearly  all  the  natives 
have  disappeared  from  this  locality,  and  high  grades  have  taken  their 
place.  Mutton  sheep,  near  Nashville,  good  grades,  bring  in  the  market 
five  cents  per  pound,  gross  ;  lambs,  grade,  three  and  a  half  to  four  and 
a  half  dollars.  A  large  trade  in  lambs  has  been  built  up  within  a  few 
years  past.  Hundreds  of  car-loads  are  shipped  every  spring  from  this 
basin  to  points  North,  and  good  prices  realized.  Good  sheep-farms 


48  SHEEP    HUSBANDRY   IN  THE   SOUTH. 

can  be  bought  in  the  basin  for  twenty  to  forty  dollars  per  acre,  vary- 
ing according  to  the  situation  and  soil." 

Mr.  Killebrew  publishes  a  letter  addressed  to  him  by  Mr. 
Tom  Crutchfield,  of  East  Tennessee,  a  successful  sheep  far- 
mer ;  from  which  we  quote  the  following :  — 

"In  1864,  I  purchased  a  lot  of  native  ewes ;  and  was  fortunate  in 
.  getting  the  use  of  a  superior  Spanish  merino  ram,  bred  by  R.  Peters, 
of  Atlanta,  Georgia,  to  cross  upon  them :  which  cross  gave  great  im- 
provement in  carcass,  form,  and  fleece ;  covering  the  naked  places  of 
the  natives,  and  making  the  fleece  much  more  dense,  and  the  fibre 
finer  and  stronger. 

"  I  saved  the  ewe  lambs  of  the  cross,  and  bred  them  to  an  improved 
Kentucky  buck,  bred  by  Robert  W.  Scott,  of  Frankfort,  Kentucky, 
which  increased  the  size  of  carcass,  and  gave  greater  length  and  yield 
of  wool. 

"  The  ewe  lambs  of  her  get  were  bred  to  the  best  Cotswold  buck 
I  could  procure,  American  breed  and  imported ;  never  using  one  buck 
longer  than  two  years,  and  never  breeding  in  and  in.  In  the  mean 
time,  I  have  added  to  my  flock,  American  bred  and  imported  Cotswold 
ewes,  at  heavy  cost,  breeding  them  to  the  same  bucks. 

"  The  imported  and  American-bred  Cotswolds,  and  their  offspring, 
are  not  superior,  either  in  carcass  or  fleece,  to  those  of  my  own  breed- 
ing. I  clipped  samples  of  wool  from  Prince  of  Wales,  an  imported 
English-bred  buck,  and  also  from  a  ewe  of  my  own  breeding,  which, 
through  several  generations,  could  be  traced  back  through  the  merino 
cross  to  the  native.  I  sent  these  samples  to  my  wool-merchants  in  Bos- 
ton, Mass.,  with  history,  and  requested  their  opinion  of  the  wool,  on  its 
merits.  They  pronounced  the  ewes'  wool  superior  to  the  bucks'.  It 
was  equally  as  good  combing  wool,  eighteen  inches  long ;  was  of  finer 
and  stronger  fibre,  soft  to  the  touch,  attributable  to  the  shade  of  merino 
in  it. 

"  The  effects  of  cross  to  the  Spanish  merino,  in  fineness  and  soft- 
ness of  fibre,  and  density  of  fleece,  and  strength  of  staple,  remain  for 
many  generations.  I  cull  my  ewes  annually,  at  shearing  time,  marking 
all  that  are  deficient  in  form  or  fleece,  or  that  are  becoming  aged ;  and 
set  them  apart  with  the  wethers  for  mutton,  which  are  sold  the  follow- 
ing spring,  often  taking  a  better  price  than  ordinary  sheep,  because 
they  gross  less  and  are  better  mutton. 

"I  sold  a  lot  last  spring   (fattened  principally  on  grass)  to  the 


SHEEP   HUSBANDRY  IN  THE  SOUTH.  49 

butchers  of  Chattanooga,  that  averaged  166f  pounds  gross;  having 
clipped  an  average  of  ten  and  three-quarter  pounds  of  nice  combing 
wool,  which  sold  at  thirty-seven  and  one-half  cents  per  pound.  The 
price  for  them  was  six  cents  per  pound  gross,  netting  me  $14  per  head ; 
while  the  market  for  ordinary  mutton  was  four  cents.  They  grossed 
less  than  one-third,  and  were  sold  for  fifteen  cents  per  pound  net." 

Mr.  John  W.  Bo  wen,  of  Smith  County,  Tennessee,  a  blue- 
grass  district,  in  a  report  to  the  Patrons  of  Husbandry,  pub- 
lished in  the  "  Rural  Sun,"  gives  the  experience  of  farmers  of 
the  county  in  raising  long-woolled  sheep.  One  farmer  says: 
"  My  experience  is  that  one  acre  of  average  pasture  will  feed 
three  sheep.  My  sheep  net  me  always  fifty  per  cent.  I  like 
the  Leicester  and  Cotswold  crossed ;  I  should  prefer  the 
Leicester."  Another  says :  "  Two  dollars  on  the  sheep,  after 
deducting  all  expenses  of  every  kind,  is  the  least  any  one 
ought  to  expect  as  the  annual  profit.  As  to  breeds,  I  like 
the  Leicester  best,  the  Cotswold  next,  and  the  South  Down 
next." 

Even  in  countries  so  favorably  situated  as  Tennessee  and 
Kentucky,  the  culture  of  the  long-woolled  sheep  can  be  profit- 
ably carried  on,  only  as  an  adjunct  to  other  husbandry.  The 
Agricultural  Commissioner  of  Tennessee  gives  this  sensible 
advice :  — 

"  Farmers,  as  a  rule,  should  not  go  into  sheep  husbandry  to  the 
neglect  of  other  things.  Let  sheep  be  one  of  the  products  of  the  farm, 
not  the  only  product.  A  few  sheep,  well  cared  for,  will  prove  profita- 
ble to  every  farmer ;  while  a  large  flock  would  become,  in  nine  cases 
out  of  ten,  a  source  of  annoyance  and  expense.  The  object  of  this 
paper  is  to  show  the  profitableness  of  sheep-raising  on  a  small  scale. 
I  do  not  advise  the  keeping  of  large  flocks  by  the  generality  of  far- 
mers. If  every  farmer  should  carry  a  small  flock,  breeding  up  the 
natives  to  high  grades,  the  profits  would  be  very  much  increased." 

We  agree  so  heartily  with  this  opinion  that  we  hesitate  to 
recommend,  at  present,  the  introduction  on  a  large  scale,  even 
in  districts  favorably  situated,  of  another  race  producing  comb- 
ing wool  and  mutton,  the  Cheviot,  which  has  received  scarcely 
any  attention  in  this  country.  The  exceeding  hardiness  of 


50  SHEEP  HUSBANDRY  IN  THE  SOUTH. 

this  race,  which,  according  to  British  writers,  "  is  certainly 
the  most  convenient  sheep,  as  he  will  thrive  anywhere,  on 
much  or  little,  in  mountain  storm  or  by  dreamy  mansion;" 
the  acknowledged  fact,  that,  of  all  English  races,  "  the  Che- 
viot has  the  best  general  mutton  and  wool ;  "  the  fact  that 
the  county  of  Northumberland,  the  home  of  the  race,  con- 
taining 1,250,000  acres,  and  having  one  sheep  to  every  one 
and  a  quarter  acres,  has  a  physical  aspect  corresponding  to 
regions  in  the  Blue  Ridge  and  Tennessee,  being  largely 
occupied  with  mountains  rising  to  a  height  of  two  thousand 
feet,  —  has  led  to  the  opinion,  that  the  Cheviots  are  peculiarly 
adapted  to  the  slopes  and  plateaus,  or  tablelands,  of  the  Blue 
Ridge  and  the  Cumberland  Mountains.  One  intelligent  cor- 
respondent, Col.  Watts,  of  South  Carolina,  speaking  of  sheep 
adapted  to  the  Blue  Ridge  region,  says :  "  I  should  also 
strongly  recommend  the  Cheviot,  so  successful  in  the  districts 
of  England  and  Scotland,  of  similar  altitude  and  climate." 
We  know  nothing  to  oppose  this  opinion,  which  appears  quite 
reasonable.  But  no  experiments  have  yet  been  made  with 
the  Cheviots  in  these  localities;  nor  have  any  judiciously 
conducted  experiments  with  the  native  or  merino  sheep,  in 
large  flocks,  been  made.  There  have  been  several  attempts 
at  sheep-growing  on  a  large  scale,  on  the  Cumberland  table- 
land, at  an  elevation  of  two  thousand  feet ;  where,  in  the 
summer  months,  the  land  is  covered  with  tussocks  of  nutri- 
tious mountain  grass,  furnishing  a  sufficient  sustenance  for 
eight  months  in  the  year.  As  no  attention  was  given  to  pro- 
viding forage  in  the  winter  for  these  flocks,  the  enterprise, 
of  course,  ignominiously  failed. 

For  the  benefit  of  those  who  may  possibly  contemplate  a 
trial  of  the  Cheviots,  it  may  be  said,  that,  in  the  counties  in 
England  and  Scotland  producing  these  sheep,  the  sheep-farms 
are  commonly  about  2,000  acres  in  extent.  In  general,  only 
a  small  part  of  the  farm  is  cultivated  (rarely  more  than  fifty 
to  one  hundred  acres),  and  that  only  for  winter  food  for  the 
sheep.  Although  bred  in  purely  pastoral  regions,  they  are 
grown  primarily  for  mutton ;  which,  when  fattened,  is  held 
in  the  highest  estimation.  The  breeder  in  the  mountains, 


SHEEP   HUSBANDRY   IN   THE   SOUTH.  51 

however,  rarely  fattens  his  sheep  or  lambs  for  market.  They 
are  turned  over,  at  different  ages^  in  different  districts,  to  be 
fattened  by  the  farmer  of  the  arable  lands,  and  lower  and 
richer  pastures.  In  the  more  southerly  counties,  the  increase 
of  a  flock  of  a  thousand  sheep  is  sold  as  lambs.  Their  sale, 
with  the  fleeces,  make  the  whole  return  of  the  flock.  But 
the  culture  of  flocks  of  this  or  any  other  race,  on  a  large 
scale,  upon  the  elevated  regions  of  the  South,  cannot  be  re- 
commended at  present.  It  must  be  the  outgrowth  of  a  gen- 
eral and  more  modest  system  of  sheep  husbandry. 

We  must  not  pass  from  the  mutton  sheep,  without  refer- 
ring to  a  race  which  seems  to  be  peculiarly  adapted  to  the 
South,  and  is  hardly  known  at  the  North :  we  refer  to  the 
broad-tailed  sheep  of  Africa  and  Asia  Minor.  Colonel  Watts, 
of  South  Carolina,  the  most  experienced  flock-master  of  that 
State,  recommends  the  culture  on  the  rich  bottom-lands  of 
the  southern  coast,  of  the  African  broad-tail,  or  a  cross  with 
the  Cotswold.  After  speaking  of  the  actual  tests  which  he 
had  made  of  all  the  principal  wool  and  mutton  breeds,  includ- 
ing the  one  last  mentioned,  he  says  :  "  If  the  principal  object 
should  be  to  raise  mutton  for  the  market,  I  would  certainly 
recommend  the  African  broad-tailed  sheep ;  because  they 
mature  earlier.  .  .  .  Were  the  question  one  of  long-combing 
wool,  I  would  cross  the  Cotswold  ewes  with  the  African 
broad-tailed  ram,  for  all  the  range  of  country  this  side  of  the 
Blue  Ridge."  These  statements  are  exceedingly  interesting. 
They  show  the  possession  of  a  resource  for  mutton  and  wool 
at  the  South  not  generally  supposed  to  exist  in  this  country. 
This  race  is  the  oldest  known.  It  is  the  sheep  of  Syria  and 
the  Bible,  —  the  race  to  which  belonged  the  Paschal  lamb ; 
and  should  be  cherished  for  its  associations,  if  for  nothing 
else.  But  travellers  speak  of  the  flesh  of  the  animal,  when 
well  bred  and  fed,  as  "  superior  to  that  of  any  breed  on  the 
face  of  the  earth."  Its  wool  furnishes  that  strong  and  bright 
fibre  found  in  the  rich  Persian  and  Turkish  carpets.  It  is  a 
natural  combing  wool ;  and  the  cross  referred  to  might  impart 
brightness,  and  strength  of  staple,  to  the  Cotswold  fleece. 

The  Angora  Croat.  —  Our  Southern  correspondents,  Mr.  Pe- 


52  SHEEP   HUSBANDRY  IN  THE   SOUTH. 

ters  and  Mr.  Watts,  give  us  some  original  contributions  in 
relation  to  the  culture  of  thfc  Angora  goat,  derived  from  their 
own  experience,  which  show  that  the  mountain  range  of  the 
Blue  Ridge  is  peculiarly  adapted  to  this  interesting  lanigerous 
animal.  Before  quoting  from  these  gentlemen,  we  may  ap- 
propriately show  the  uses  to  which  the  fleeces  of  the  Angora 
goat  may  be  applied,  as  stated  in  the  Report  of  the  judges  on 
Wool  at  the  International  Exhibition  of  1876. 

"  Mohair,  the  fleece  of  the  Angora  goat,  is  not  a  mere  substitute  for 
wool,  but  occupies  its  own  place  in  the  textile  fabrics.  It  has  the  as- 
pect, feel,  and  lustre  of  silk,  without  its  suppleness.  It  differs  materially 
from  wool  in  the  want  of  the  felting  quality ;  so  that  the  stuffs  made 
of  it  have  the  fibres  distinctly  separated,  and  are  always  brilliant.  On 
account  of  the  stiffness  of  the  fibre,  it  is  rarely  woven  alone ;  that  is, 
when  it  is  used  for  the  filling,  the  warp  is  usually  of  cotton,  silk,  or 
wool,  or  the  reverse.  The  distinguishing  qualities  of  the  fibre  are  lus- 
tre, elasticity,  and  wonderful  durability.  The  qualities  of  lustre  and 
durability,  particularly,  fit  this  material  for  its  chief  use,  —  the  manu- 
facture of  Utrecht  velvets,  commonly  called  *  furniture  plush,'  the  finest 
qualities  of  which  are  composed  principally  of  mohair,  the  pile  being 
formed  of  mohair  warps,  which  are  cut  in  the  same  manner  as  silk 
warps  in  velvets.  Upon  passing  the  finger  lightly  over  the  best  Utrecht 
velvets,  the  rigidity  and  elasticity  of  the  fibre  will  be  distinctly  per- 
ceived. The  fibre  springs  back  to  its  original  uprightness,  when  the 
pressure  is  removed.  The  best  mohair  plushes  are  almost  indestruc- 
tible ;  and  are  now  in  general  use  by  all  the  principal  railroads,  as  the 
most  enduring  of  all  coverings  for  railroad  seats.  The  English  have 
attained  the  greatest  success  in  spinning  mohair,  and  the  French  and 
German  manufacturers  use  English  yarns.  .  .  .  Another  analogous 
application  of  mohair  is  for  forming  the  pile  of  imitation  seal-skins. 
Some  of  these  fabrics,  exhibited  by  manufacturers  of  Huddersfield,  Eng- 
land, were  of  striking  beauty ;  the  resemblance  to  seal  fur  being  quite 
striking.  .  .  .  Mohair  forms  an  essential  material  for  the  best  carriage 
and  lap  robes,  with  a  long  and  lustrous  pile.  Some  exhibited  were 
made  to  resemble  the  skins  of  tigers,  leopards,  and  other  animals.  .  .  . 
Another  application  of  mohair  is  for  the  fabrication  of  braids  for  bind- 
ing, which  have  the  lustre  of  silk,  but  far  greater  durability.  .  .  . 
Still  another  important  application  of  this  material  is  the  fabrication 
of  black  dress  goods,  resembling  alpacas ;  the  mohair  being  woven  with 


SHEEP   HUSBANDRY   IN   THE   SOUTH.  53 

cotton  warps.  They  are  called  mohair  lustres  or  brilliantines.  Beau- 
tiful exhibits  of  this  admirable  fabric  were  made  by  the  Arlington 
Mills  and  the  Farr  Alpaca  Company,  of  Massachusetts.  Mohair  is 
also  used  in  France  in  the  manufacture  of  laces,  which  are  substituted 
for  the  silk  laces  of  Valenciennes  and  Chantilly." 

So  numerous  are  the  applications  of  this  material  that,  so 
soon  as  a  sufficient  domestic  supply  is  assured,  the  manufac- 
ture will  have  a  great  extension  in  this  country,  furnishing 
a  home  market  for  all  that  can  be  produced ;  although  it 
must  be  admitted  that  its  use  at  present  is  comparatively 
small.  The  total  production  of  mohair  in  the  world,  as  shown 
by  the  imports  into  Europe  —  a  very  little  as  yet  being  im- 
ported into  this  country  —  in  1876,  was,  according  to  the 
Messrs.  Burnes,  four  and  three-fourths  millions.  Formerly,  it 
was  all  produced  in  Asia  Minor.  Recently,  the  Angora  goat 
has  been  acclimatized  in  the  colony  of  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  ; 
which  exported,  in  1876,  one  and  a  quarter  million  pounds,  — 
a  fact  which  stimulates  growers  here.  The  average  price  last 
year  was  thirty-seven  pence,  —  about  twice  that  of  the  best 
Lincoln  hogget  wool.  That  of  alpaca  fell  as  low  as  twenty 
and  a  half  pence.  The  Angora,  therefore,  is  by  far  the  most 
valuable  of  all  lanigerous  animals ;  not  even  excepting  the 
famous  Cashmere  goat,  which  produces  only  two  or  three 
ounces,  to  the  animal,  of  the  pushm,  or  fine  wool  used  for 
making  India  shawls. 

As  to  the  adaptability  of  the  culture  of  this  invaluable 
animal  to  the  elevated  regions  of  the  South,  Mr.  Peters 
says : — 

"  I  have  owned  these  animals  (Angora  goats)  from  six  distinct  impor- 
tations; those  brought  over  by  Dr.  J.  B.  Davis,  in  1848,  proving  to  be 
superior  in  many  respects  to  any  of  the  more  recent  importations. 
One  of  the  most  valuable,  interesting,  and  remarkable  traits  of  the 
Angoras  is  the  rapidity  with  which  fleece-bearing  goats  can  be  obtained 
by  using  thorough-bred  bucks  to  cross  on  the  common  short-horned 
ewe-goats  of  the  country.  The  second  cross  produces  a  goat  with  a 
skin  valued  for  rugs,  mats,  and  gloves.  The  fifth  cross  (known  by 
many  breeders  as  full  blood)  will  yield  a  fleece  not  inferior  to  much 
of  the  mohair  imported  from  Asia  Minor.  The  fifth  cross  can  be  read- 


54  SHEEP   HUSBANDRY   IN   THE   SOUTH. 

ily  obtained  in  five  or  six  years.  Thorough-bred  bucks  should  always 
be  used,  because  the  progeny  of  the  so-called  'full-blood'  bucks  vary 
greatly,  and  the  upward  progress  is  by  no  means  satisfactory.  The 
Angora  is  a  hardy,  industrious,  and  self-sustaining  animal,  and  can  be 
classed  as  herbivorous.  Being  active  and  vigorous,  they  roam  over  wide 
ranges  of  country,  giving  value  to  worthless  vegetation  refused  by  most 
other  animals ;  and  will  feed  and  fatten  at  double  the  distance  from 
water  that  sheep  can,  as  they  travel  faster  and  endure  more.  I  have, 
for  twenty  years,  bred  them  largely,  and  have  observed  the  following 
rules  in  my  selection  of  stock  bucks :  — 

"  In  pedigree,  dating  back  to  Asiatic  importation. 

"  In  fleece,  weight  and  length  of  the  long,  silky,  ringletted,  white 
fleece,  and  its  freedom  from  kemp,  and  mane  on  the  back  and  neck. 

"  Inform,  size  and  vigor,  long,  pendant  ears,  and  upright,  spiral  horns. 

"  If  that  point  has  not  been  already  reached,  I  believe  it  will  be, 
when,  (as  in  the  history  of  the  merino  sheep)  finer  specimens  of  the 
Angora,  American  bred,  may  be  seen  here  than  can  be  found  in  their 
haunts  in  Asia  Minor." 

"  I  have  had  great  success  with  the  Angoras,  and  regard  them  as  one 
of  the  most  valuable  acquisitions  to  the  resources  of  our  husbandry. 
They  have  yielded  me  more  substantial  pecuniary  benefit  than  any 
branch  of  my  extended  stock  investments.  In  1861, 1  sent  out  to  Wm. 
M.  Landrum,  of  California,  the  first  Angoras  that  went  there ;  where 
they  have  laid  the  foundation  of  what,  I  am  confident,  will  be  a  very 
extensive  and  profitable  husbandry.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that,  in 
the  range  of  the  Blue  Ridge,  extending  from  Alabama  to  Virginia, 
they  would  find  all  the  requirements  of  their  nature,  utilize  a  vast  coun- 
try, and  prove  a  source  of  great  benefit  and  profit  to  all  interested." 

Colonel  Watts,  on  the  same  subject,  uses  these  words :  — 

"  Let  me  say,  in  view  of  the  industrial  wants  of  the  country,  I  think 
this  last-named  section  of  our  State  [South  Carolina],  the  Blue  Ridge 
mountains,  can,  with  moderate  care  and  expense,  most  successfully  find 
all  the  facilities  needed  for  the  best  combing  wools  and  the  Alpaca  and 
Angora  goat.  In  fact,  I  have  no  doubt  on  this  point.  Even  here, 
seventy-five  miles  from  the  mountains,  I  have,  for  six  years,  grown 
most  successfully  the  Angora  goat ;  whose  flesh  I  regard  as  superior  to 
any  mutton,  and  whose  fleece,  properly  handled,  could  there  be  made 
more  profitable  than  any  wool-growing.  This  I  can  say  from  actual, 
careful  experience  with  Angoras  of  the  Asia  Minor  stock,  meeting  here 


SHEEP   HUSBANDRY   IN   THE   SOUTH.  55 

few  obstacles  to  their  profitable  breeding ;  and  which,  in  the  Blue  Ridge 
beyond  me,  would  find  an  exact  counterpart  of  their  native  soil  and 
climate." 

"  Aside  from  their  flesh  and  wool,  there  is  another  advantage  which 
they  offer,  which,  in  the  mountains  beyond,  would  be  most  valuable. 
In  a  cross  I  have  made  with  a  pure  Angora  buck  and  a  Maltese  ewe- 
goat,  I  have  raised  a  ewe-goat  that  will  give  four  quarts  of  as  good 
milk  as  any  cow  on  my  plantation.  The  feed  of  one  of  my  cows  will 
keep  twelve  goats.  My  cows  must  have  certain  food,  or  they  will  not 
thrive.  My  goats  will  eat  any  thing  almost,  and  do  well ;  and  with 
this  advantage,  also,  that  their  milk  and  butter  are  not  in  any  way 
affected  by  their  diet. 

"  It  is  not,  therefore,  at  all  an  open  question  with  me,  after  years  of 
practical  experience,  whether  the  Angora  and  kindred  races  of  the 
goat  tribe  would  thrive  on  our  Blue  Ridge.  They  would  be  more 
profitable  in  that  locality  than  any  other  husbandry." 

In  confirmation  of  the  value  of  one  fact,  among  many  others, 
mentioned  by  Colonel  Watts,  it  may  be  remarked  that  the 
reports  of  the  Society  of  Acclimation  of  France,  upon  this 
animal,  dwell  specially  upon  the  importance  of  giving  milk- 
producing  qualities  to  the  Angora ;  as,  with  this  quality,  and 
the  value  of  its  fleece,  the  Angora  would  wholly  replace  the 
common  goat. 

Mr.  F.  S.  Fulmer,  of  Spring  Mills,  Appomattox  County, 
Virginia,  writes  us:  — 

"  My  Angora  goats,  fifty  in  number,  pure  bred,  got  their  living  all 
last  summer  in  a  pasture  where  grass  (other  than  broom  straw)  and 
clover  never  grows.  So  far  this  winter  I  have  fed  them  nothing  but 
coarse  corn-stalks.  In  fact,  up  to  this  time,  they  have  kept  in  a  thriv- 
ing condition  almost  entirely  on  acorns,  of  which  they  seem  very  fond. 
I  treat  them  as  to  shelter,  &c.,  just  as  I  would  sheep,  except  I  am 
rather  more  careful  to  keep  them  out  of  cold  rains  [an  important  ob- 
servation]. From  my  experience,  I  am  led  to  conclude  that  the  Angora 
goat,  aside  from  first  cost,  can  be  made  to  pay  better  than  sheep,  espe- 
cially in  the  Southern  States,  where  they  can  have  large  ranges  over 
poor  land." 

The  culture  of  this  animal  is  now  receiving  much  attention 
in  the  Australian  colonies.  Mr.  Samuel  Wilson,  who  is  said 


56  SHEEP    HUSBANDRY    IN   THE    SOUTH. 

to  have  had  exceptional  opportunities  for  observation,  in  a 
paper  read  before  the  Victorian  Zoological  Society,  says :  — 

"  Some  think  the  preferable  plan  of  starting  a  flock  of  Angoras  is 
to  commence  with  a  few  pure  goats,  and  trust  solely  to  their  increase. 
By  this  process,  considerable  time  must  elapse  before  a  large  number 
could  be  raised  ;  while,  by  commencing  with  the  common  goats,  you  can 
obtain,  by  crossing,  in  six  years,  a  valuable  flock,  only  limited  by  the 
number  of  common  goats  procured  at  the  commencement  of  the  opera- 
tions. It  is  urged,  as  an  objection  to  this  system,  that  you  can  never 
reach  absolute  purity.  Theoretically,  this  is  self-evident ;  but,  practi- 
cally, you  can  eliminate  every  trace  of  base  blood.  By  constant  use  of 
pure  sexes,  and  by  judicious  selection,  a  standard  would  be  reached,  at 
least  as  pure  and  as  certain  to  breed  pure  to  type  as  that  of  the  im- 
proved Leicester  sheep,  the  modern  fox-hound,  or  what  we  call  the 
*  thoroughbred '  horse." 

The  writer  of  this  paper  has,  for  a  long  time,  made  a  special 
study  of  the  Angora  goat.  In  1869,  he  prepared  an  elaborate 
essay  on  the  subject,  which  was  published  in  the  Proceedings 
of  the  Boston  Society  of  Natural  History,  and  subsequently 
was  translated  and  published  in  the  Transactions  of  the  Royal 
Agricultural  Society  of  France.  In  that  essay,  he  held  the 
view  that  the  characteristic  qualities  of  the  fleece  could  not 
be  secured  by  breeding  the  Angora  on  the  common  goat. 
This  opinion  he  has  been  compelled  to  modify.  While  be- 
lieving, with  Mr.  Peters  and  Mr.  Wilson,  that  a  pure-blooded 
sire  should  be  always  used,  he  must  admit  that  good  fleece- 
producing  animals  may  be  founded  on  the  common  goat.  The 
conclusive  fact  establishing  this  is  the  statement  of  the  Messrs. 
Bowes,  in  their  statistics  of  wool  for  1878,  —  a  very  high 
authority.  They  say:  — 

"  We  may  refer  to  the  acclimatization,  in  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope, 
of  the  Angora  goat,  on  which  mohair  is  grown.  The  progress  made 
during  the  last  dozen  years  has  been  very  satisfactory,  not  only  as 
regards  the  quantity  produced,  but  the  quality,  which  has  been  very 
much  improved.  The  first  shipment  made  was  in  1865,  and  consisted 
of  6,804  pounds  ;  in  1869, 245,000  pounds  were  shipped ;  and,  in  1876, 
the  quantity  reached  1,298,455  pounds." 


SHEEP   HUSBANDRY   IN   THE   SOUTH.  57 

This  great  quantity  could  not  have  been  grown  upon  pure 
animals,  as  they  could  not  have  been  procured.  It  must  have 
been  the  product  of  graded  animals.  The  best  test  of  the 
value  of  this  product  is  that  it  has  become  a  regular  commer- 
cial article.  These  facts,  and  the  experience  of  the  Southern 
gentlemen  whom  we  have  quoted,  place  it  beyond  doubt  that 
the  culture  of  the  Angora  goat  can  be  made  a  most  remunera- 
tive industry  at  the  South. 

TEXAS. 

The  sheep  husbandry  of  this  State  is  so  distinct  in  its  char- 
acter from  that  pursued  or  feasible  in  the  older  States  of  the 
South,  and  is  of  such  high  importance,  that  it  demands  a  sep- 
arate consideration.  The  estimated  number  of  sheep  in  this 
State,  in  January,  1878,  was  3,674,700.  It  ranks  at  present 
as  the  third  wool-producing  State  in  the  Union,  although 
having  but  about  a  hundred  thousand  head  less  than  Ohio, 
which  has  3,783,000,  and  about  half  the  number  of  California, 
which  has  6,561,000  head. 

In  its  adaptation  for  sheep  husbandry  on  a  large  scale, 
Texas  possesses  decided  advantages  over  our  other  Southern 
States,  enormous  ones  over  the  Northern  and  Eastern  States, 
and  many  over  California  and  the  trans-Missouri  regions. 
The  cheapness  of  land ;  its  natural  fertility  ;  its  genial  climate 
and  exemption  from  tempestuous  weather,  except  in  the  north- 
ers, whose  severity  is  generally  much  exaggerated ;  the  absence 
of  seasons  of  continuous  drouth,  owing  to  the  influence  of  the 
gulf  before  referred  to  ;  the  possession  of  permanent  winter 
grasses,  making  the  pasturage  perennial,  —  are  advantages 
which  will  make  Texas  one  of  the  great  wool-producing 
countries  of  the  world.  Dr.  Randall  said,  in  1859,  of  regions 
of  Texas  which  he  had  thoroughly  studied  :  — 

"  I  do  not  entertain  a  particle  of  doubt  that  wool  can  be  raised  more 
cheaply  in  those  regions  than  in  any  other  portion  of  the  globe  where 
good  government  prevails,  to  make  life  tolerable  and  secure,  and  such 
property  as  sheep  safe  from  frequent  and  extensive  depredations.  In 
no  such  portion  are  lands  furnishing  perennial  pasturage,  or  the  use  of 

8 


58  SHEEP  HUSBANDRY  IN  THE  SOUTH. 

such  lands,  so  cheap.     In  none  are  general  circumstances  more  favor- 
able, the  accidental  and  occasional  disadvantages  so  few." 

Upon  its  annexation  to  the  United  States,  in  1845,  Texas 
retained,  as  the  most  valuable,  though  then  little  appreciated, 
relic  of  the  former  Mexican  proprietors,  scattered  here  and 
there,  flocks  of  the  so-called  "  native  "  sheep  of  Mexico,  of 
which  large  flocks  still  abound  in  that  country,  and  which  still 
furnishes  an  easy  supply  of  all  that  are  needed.  This  race, 
greatly  deteriorated  by  neglect,  small  in  size,  and  bearing 
about  two  pounds  of  coarse  wool,  is  supposed  by  many  to  be 
degenerated  merinos.  It  is  now  well  established  that  they 
are  descendants  from  the  Chourro  race  of  Spain,  even  at 
present  distributed  in  all  parts  of  that  kingdom,  —  a  race  dis- 
tinguished for  its  robust  temperament,  the  facility  with  which 
it  is  nourished,  and  its  resistance  to  hunger  and  tempestuous 
seasons.  When  the  animals  are  properly  fed  and  bred,  they 
may  be  made  to  produce  a  long  and  very  white,  though  coarse, 
wool,  well  adapted  for  carpets.  This  is  the  stock  which  was 
the  original  foundation  of  the  present  Texas  flocks. 

The  first  recognized  improver  of  these  sheep,  and  therefore 
the  founder  of  the  present  sheep  husbandry  of  Texas,  was  G. 
W.  Kendall,  who  had  been  an  editor  of  a  leading  paper  in 
New  Orleans.  He  was  the  first  to  conceive  the  idea  of  en- 
grafting the  merino  stock  upon  the  native  Mexican  sheep. 
His  experiments  were  attended  with  extraordinary  success-. 
He  was,  in  his  time,  the  largest  wool-grower  in  the  State. 
"Braunfels"  (his  establishment),  about  twenty  miles  north- 
east from  San  Antonio,  will  take  its  place  in  the  history  of 
sheep  husbandry  with  "  Camden,"  the  initial  point  from  which 
the  sheep  husbandry  of  Australia  spread.  Mr.  Kendall  did 
for  Texas  what  Captain  Me  Arthur  did  for  Australia.  They 
were  the  great  benefactors  of  their  respective  countries.  The 
journalism  of  America  can  cite  no  better  example  of  the  in- 
fluence of  that  great  profession  than  the  results  achieved  by 
the  journalist,  Kendall. 

We  regret  that,  with  all  our  efforts,  we  have  been  unable 
to  obtain  condensed,  original  statements  in  regard  to  the  sheep 


SHEEP   HUSBANDRY   IN   THE   SOUTH.  59 

husbandry  of  Texas,  like  those  so  kindly  furnished  us  by  Mr. 
Peters  and  Colonel  Watts  in  relation  to  Georgia  and  South 
Carolina.  In  their  absence,  we  must  content  ourselves  mainly 
with  giving  extracts  from  the  Texas  correspondents  with  the 
Department  of  Agriculture.  Although  fragmentary  in  their 
character,  they  will,  perhaps,  present  a  more  exact  picture  of 
the  general  sheep  husbandry  of  the  State  than  could  be  given 
by  more  elaborate  and  better-arranged  statements. 

We  give  the  extracts  at  hazard,  and  without  reference  to 
the  geographical  position  of  the  counties,  or  their  bearing 
upon  any  particular  question  in  sheep  husbandry.  In  order 
to  preserve  the  piquancy  of  the  statements,  the  exact  language 
of  the  correspondents  is  given  in  all  cases.  The  correspon- 
dents, it  will  be  remembered,  are  selected  by  the  Department 
from  the  most  intelligent  agriculturists  residing  in  the  several 
counties. 

A  correspondent  from  Palo  Pinto  County  writes :  — 

"A  sheep-raiser  for  several  years  says:  Say  for  1,000  head,  it  will 
cost  $300  for  herding;  extra  help  in  lambing  time,  $30;  salt,  $15; 
cost  of  shearing,  $50 ;  feed  during  winter,  $200.  We  imagine  the 
Georgia  Bureau  of  Agriculture  knows  but  little  about  large  herds 
of  sheep,  as  they  are  grown  on  prairie  grass.  They  are  accus- 
tomed to  herds  of  from  10  to  100  head.  Such  flocks  are  not  neces- 
sary to  be  herded,  and  yield  a  fine  profit.  If  we  make  it  a  specialty, 
and  put  500  to  1,000  in  a  herd,  which  is  common  here,  they  will  not 
pay  so  well.  The  figures,  made  on  paper,  will  show  them  to  pay  better 
than  any  thing  else.  But  a  very  little  experience  shows  the  figures 
quite  an  error.  Small  herds  here  will  pay  very  well,  and  much  better 
than  large,  when  they  are  so  large  as  to  require  a  herder." 

Navarro  County.  —  "I  have  been  engaged,"  says  the  correspondent, 
"in  sheep-raising  for  fourteen  years.  In  this  and  all  the  old,  settled 
prairie  counties,  300  to  400  sheep  do  well.  100  per  cent  gross  profit 
is  a  fair  statement.  The  profit  diminishes  10  per  cent  per  100  head, 
as  you  go  over  100.  My  flock  has  ranged  from  300  to  1,000.  I  put 
up  annually  100  pounds  of  prairie  hay  and  one  bushel  of  cotton  seed 
to  the  sheep,  and  have  good  shelter  provided." 

Goliad  County.  —  This  correspondent,  Hon.  Prior  Lea,  the  writer 
has  the  pleasure  of  knowing  personally  to  be  entitled  to  great  confi- 
dence. "  Cost  and  profit  of  growing  wool  may  be  estimated  in  two 


60  SHEEP  HUSBANDRY  IN  THE  SOUTH. 

ways.  Crediting  increase  of  sheep  as  equal  to  all  cost,  the  wool  would 
be  net  profit ;  and  this,  at  least,  is  claimed  by  many  persons.  Without 
crediting  increase  for  more  than  enough  to  maintain  the  flock  equal  to 
its  primitive  condition,  a  practical  estimate  for  cost,  considering  every 
kind  of  item,  might  be  from  10  to  12  cents  per  pound  of  unwashed 
wool,  averaging  17  cents  in  market.  This  latter  mode  gives  broad 
margin  for  contingencies." 

Brandon  County.  — "  Cost  of  keeping  sheep,  about  25  cents  per 
head;  profit,  30  cents  to  $1.00,  exclusive  of  increase." 

Another ;  same  county.  —  "  One  flock  of  800  cost,  for  shepherd  and 
salt,  $275 ;  net  profit,  including  wool  and  increase,  31  per  cent." 

Aransas  County.  —  "  Cost  of  keep,  10  per  cent;  profit,  50  to  60  per 
cent  on  capital.  Mr.  P.'s  flock  average  50  per  cent  of  its  total  value 
as  profit.  About  100,000  sheep  in  the  county,  mostly  improved 
merinos." 

Beurre  County.  — "  One-half  in  farms  under  cultivation ;  all  the 
rest  a  complete  pasture.  Sheep-raisers  say  this  is  the  best  county  they 
ever  saw." 

Ccdlahan  County.  — "  Flock  of  2,000.  20  cents  per  head  cost. 
Profit  by  wool,  40  cents  per  head." 

Fort  Bend  County.  — "  250,000  sheep  could  be  raised  in  this  county. 
One-quarter  in  cultivation.  All  the  rest  adapted  for  sheep-pasture, 
yet  no  sheep  worth  mentioning :  all  cattle  and  cotton.  At  close  of 
war,  sheep-raising  began  to  decline,  owing  to  depreciation  of  price  of 
wool.  A  reaction  has  now  taken  place :  extensive  pastures  are  now 
being  enclosed ;  improved  breeds  are  introduced." 

Kendall  County.  —  "  Mr.  B.  has  1,000  head  of  sheep.  Shears,  5,000 
pounds  of  wool ;  at  28  cents,  $1,400 ;  cost  of  keep,  $325 :  profit, 
$1,075." 

Another ;  same  county.  —  "A  successful  sheep-raiser  says  :  '  I  com- 
menced with  220  ewes,  three  years  ago ;  and  have  sold  sufficient  of  the 
flock  to  make  an  increase  of  100  per  cent,  per  year,  average  ;  and  the 
wool  has  averaged  for  that  time  from  75  cents  to  $1,  annually.' " 

Lavaca  County.  —  "  Mr.  S.  B.  M.  has  a  flock  of  1,500  head,  let  out 
to  a  herder  on  shares ;  and,  therefore,  furnishes  a  pretty  fair  sample 
as  to  profits.  He  gives  the  herder  one-quarter  of  the  wool  and  one- 
quarter  of  the  annual  increase,  that  is,  the  actual  increase.  He  fur- 
nishes the  salt,  sheep  dip,  &c.  The  herder  pays  all  other  expenses, 
except  shearing ;  and  pays  one-quarter  of  this  amount.  This  makes 
the  yield  to  the  owner, — 


SHEEP   HUSBANDRY   IN   THE   SOUTH.  61 

For  wool $800.00 

The  increase  of  the  flock  will  average  800  head ;  which, 

at  $1.50  per  lamb,  in  spring,  makes  lambs $1,200.00 

Deduct  from  this  $1,200,  one-quarter  to  herder 300.00 

which  leaves    .  900.00 


Leaving  a  balance  as  net  profit,  on  one  flock,  of $1,700.00 

or  about  $1,13  per  head  on  the  entire  flock." 

Neuces  County.  —  There  are  several  reports  from  this,  the  leading 
wool-producing  county  in  the  State. 

One  correspondent  says :  "  Sheep  husbandry  is  the  leading  industry  ; 
and  a  higher  degree  of  intelligence  is  devoted  to  it  than  to  any  other 
enterprise  in  the  county." 

Another  says :  "  I  would  estimate  the  cost  of  keep  and  profits  on 
the  sheep  (Spanish  merino)  as  follows :  — 

1  two-year-old  ewe  cost  $5.00. 


Dr. 

To  interest,  one  year  at  12%  .    . 
„    cost  of  feed,  herding,  salt,  &c. 
Buck  service                          • 

.60 
1.00 
40 

By  5i  Ibs.  wool  at  20  cts.  . 
„    75%  of  lamb  at  $4.00  . 

Cr. 
.    .  $1.10 
.    .     3.00 

Total    

.    .  $4  10 

Insurance  

.10 

„    Shrinkage  in  value      .     .     . 

.70 

Less  cost  of  keep  .    . 

.     .     2.80 

Total    , 

$2.80 

$1.30 

Per  cent  of  profit,  25. 

"  My  own  flock,  now  numbering  1,700,  started  460  in  1873  (merinos 
and  Cotswold  grade),  has  paid  above  per  cent,  of  profit,  or  more." 

Another  careful  correspondent  from  the  county  of  Nueces  says : 
"  Rams  have  been  imported  in  large  numbers.  Improvement  is  al- 
ready far  advanced.  Flocks  are  sheltered  from  Nov.  15  to  Feb.  1, 
by  selecting  their  range  and  night-camp  on  the  south  side  of  some 
creek  or  prairie-timber.  There  is  no  foot-rot.  Semi-annual  lambing 
is  generally  adopted  in  this  county ;  the  February  or  spring  crop  being 
always  the  most  preferable.  One  set  of  ewes  lamb  in  the  spring,  and 
another  set  in  the  fall.  Those  who  shear  the  best  and  most  desirable 
clips  of  wool  handle  their  sheep  in  moderately  large  flocks  of  1,000  to 
1,200  head.  Provision  is  only  made  for  select  sheep,  —  such  as  rams. 
Average  weight  of  fleece,  5  pounds.  Average  cost  of  keeping,  25  to  28 
cents.  Profit,  72  to  75  cents.  Where  dipping  has  to  be  added,  the 
general  expenses  will  be  3  to  4  cents  per  head.  Good  tobacco,  lib- 
erally used,  invariably  cures  the  scab;  all  other  preparations  have 


62  SHEEP   HUSBANDRY   IN   THE   SOUTH. 

failed  in  this  county.  Profits  on  wool  only  given  as  profits  from  in- 
crease are  rarely  turned  into  cash.  Ewe  lambs  of  high  grade  sell 
readily  for  $2.50  to  $4  per  head.  The  cost  of  keeping,  where  the 
shepherd  cares  for  only  1,000  sheep,  is  the  cost  given ;  where  he  cares 
for  1,500  to  2,000,  as  many  do  the  year  round,  the  real  cost  is  propor- 
tionably  less." 

The  number  of  sheep  in  this  county,  according  to  the 
returns  of  assessors,  is  656,000 ;  and  the  remarkable  fact  is 
presented  to  us,  that  very  nearly  the  most  southerly  country 
of  the  whole  United  States  is  the  banner  sheep  county  of 
the  Union.  The  adjoining  county,  Starr,  has  181,000  sheep. 
And  these  two  counties  have  more  sheep  than  the  four 
States  of  the  South — Georgia,  South  Carolina,  Florida,  and 
Louisiana-,  together ;  or  the  conjoined  States  of  the  North, 
—  New  Hampshire,  Vermont,  Massachusetts,  and  Rhode 
Island. 

One  of  our  own  correspondents,  certified  to  as  one  of  the 
oldest  and  best  citizens  of  Texas,  writes  us  as  follows :  — 

WACO,  MCLELLAN  Co.,  TEXAS,  Jan.  12,  1878. 

SIB,  —  I  have  been  directly  or  indirectly  interested  in  wool-growing, 
in  this  State  and  section,  for  many  years.  The  country  is  rolling- 
prairie  land ;  the  soil,  black,  waxy,  and,  in  sections,  quite  sandy,  and 
an  excellent  grazing  country.  The  natural  grasses  are  the  sedge  and 
mosquito  ;  of  the  latter,  three  varieties,  —  the  best,  the  bearded  variety. 
My  flocks  have  been  French  and  Spanish  merinos,  mixed  ;  the  average 
product  of  fleece  being  six  pounds,  at  an  average  valuation,  for  five 
years,  of  25  cents  per  pound.  This  can  be  produced  under  favorable 
circumstances  for  1 6  cents  net  cost  to  the  shepherd ;  but  he  should 
have  not  less  than  the  ten  cents  profit  added,  to  make  a  paying  invest- 
ment. If  there  is  no  change  in  our  duties,  I  am  confident  that  there 
is  no  more  promising  industry  in  the  country  than  wool-growing ;  but, 
if  we  are  to  have  reduced  duties,  or  free  wools,  the  occupation  will 
have  to  be  abandoned. 

There  is  no  objection  to  sheep  from  any  section  of  the  North  or 
West,  if  free  from  disease.  For  the  ordinary  wools,  I  would  prefer 
the  merino  ;  for  mutton  or  combing  wools,  a  cross  of  the  Cotswold  with 
pure-blood  merinos.  The  country  is  uniformly  healthy  for  sheep  here. 
In  three  months  of  the  winter,  the  sheep  should  have  some  feed :  say 


SHEEP   HUSBANDRY   IN   THE   SOUTH.  63 

one-third  of  their  consumption.  I  would  say  that  sixty -five  cents  a 
head  would  cover  every  possible  contingency  or  cost  in  sheep  hus- 
bandry, per  annum,  in  this  section.  As  I  have  said,  if  the  farmers  are 
to  keep  the  protection  they  now  have  against  the  producers  of  foreign 
wools,  there  is  no  more  profitable  industry  that  any  one  who  will  put 
his  attention  to  the  business  can  be  engaged  in. 

Yours  truly, 

W.  R.  KELLUM. 
i 

Another  of  our  own  correspondents  writes  as  follows  :  — 

HOUSTON,  TEXAS,  Jan.  9,  1878. 

DEAR  SIR,  —  I  have  had  long  experience  in  sheep  husbandry  in 
the  San  Joaquin  and  Santa  Barbara  country,  and  also  in  Los  Angeles, 
California.  I  know  well  Colonel  Hollister,  Mr.  Dibbles,  of  California, 
and  other  prominent  wool-growers  there.  I  was  also  for  a  time  in  Utah  j 
also,  in  Western  Texas,  —  which  I  regard  as  the  best  country  for  the 
industry  with  which  I  am  acquainted,  if  life  and  property  were  only 
secure  against  Mexican  depredations.  The  climate,  for  man  and  beast, 
is  unrivalled ;  the  feed,  rich  and  unfailing  all  the  year  round.  No 
country  I  know  of  could  so  well  sustain  the  large  flocks  which,  from 
various  causes,  are  being  broken  up  in  California. 

In  a  parallel  drawn  north  from  Laredo  to  the  Indian  Territory,  there 
is  the  best  location  for  the  industry,  in  my  judgment,  in  the  country. 
But,  until  Uncle  Sam  will  protect  us  there,  the  life  of  the  shepherd  and 
his  flocks  are  in  constant  jeopardy  from  the  Mexicans.  These  thieves 
and  marauders  operate  in  a  regularly  systematic  way;  being  fitted  out 
and  encouraged  by  the  wealthy  Mexicans  living  on  or  near  the  border, 
who  for  years  have  been  at  the  bottom  of  all  the  border  troubles,  from 
their  desire  for  annexation  to  this  country.  Their  purpose  constantly 
is  to  provoke  a  war ;  believing  the  result  will  be  annexation,  when  they 
will  then  have  *a  stable  government,  which  they  know  they  never  will 
have  under  any  Mexican  leader.  .  .  . 

There  are  other  very  fine  fields  for  this  industry  near  Corpus  Christi, 
San  Antonio,  north  and  south  of  Dallas ;  but  the  finest  section  in  this 
country,  in  my  judgment,  must  remain  idle,  unless,  as  I  have  said,  the 
government  will  give  protection. 

S.  W.  PIPKIN. 

Statements  of  Mr.  SJiaeffer.  —  After  the  above  notes  had 
been  put  in  press,  the  writer  enjoyed  the  privilege  of  several 
personal  interviews  at  Washington  with  Mr.  F.  W.  Shaeffer, 


64  SHEEP   HUSBANDRY   IN   THE   SOUTH. 

of  San  Diego,  Texas,  commended  by  members  of  the  dele- 
gation in  Congress  from  Texas  as  the  highest  authority  on 
sheep-growing  in  that  State.  The  following  notes,  which 
this  gentleman  permitted  us  to  take  at  these  interviews,  will 
serve  to  give  a  much  more  exact  idea  of  the  present  condi- 
tion and  resources  for  sheep  husbandry  in  Texas  than  the 
notes  before  given. 

Our  informant,  born  in  Ohio,  was  early  in  life  engaged  in 
mercantile  pursuits  in  the  city  of  New  York.  Finding  them 
uncongenial,  he  embarked  in  sheep  husbandry  in  Texas,  about 
the  3rear  1857  ;  settling  in  the  higher  region  of  the  State, 
north  of  San  Antonio.  The  foundation  of  his  flocks,  which 
now  number  15,000  head,  was  sheep  purchased  before  the 
war  from  a  brother  of  General  Beauregard,  supplemented 
since  the  war  by  1,500  breeding  ewes,  obtained  from  the  es- 
tates of  G.  W.  Kendall,  identified  with  the  introduction  of 
improved  sheep  husbandry  into  Texas.  Finding  the  climate 
in  the  high  region  where  he  was  first  established  not  as  mild 
as  he  desired,  he  purchased  lands  in  the  more  southerly 
region  of  the  State,  about  fifty  miles  from  Corpus  Christi,  in 
Nueces  County,  obtaining  gradually  about  80,000  acres;  the 
whole  of  this  great  tract  being  enclosed  in  one  vast  pasture 
by  a  wire  fence,  which  cost  upwards  of  $16,000.  Here  he 
found  the  climate  so  mild  that  the  sheep  thrive  absolutely 
without  shelter.  He  regards  it  as  necessary  only  to  keep  the 
sheep  fat  and  in  good  condition,  to  enable  them  to  resist  with- 
out inconvenience  the  cold  wind  and  rain  of  that  climate. 
Even  the  shepherds  have  no  shelter,  except  such  as  they  may 
make  with  their  blankets ;  and  no  means  of  warming  them- 
selves, but  a  fire  on  the  open  ground.  They  suffer  no  incon- 
venience, however,  from  this  exposure,  and  are  always  on 
hand  to  take  care  of  their  sheep. 

The  sheep  in  this  district  are  divided  into  single  flocks  of 
from  1,100  to  1,300  in  number ;  usually  about  1,100,  this  being 
about  the  number  which  can  be  advantageously  kept  together 
under  the  care  of  one  shepherd.  The  ewes,  with  their  lambs, 
are  kept  separate  from  the  dry  ewes,  and  the  wethers,  —  or 
muttons,  as  they  are  generally  called.  A  thousand  or  eleven 


SHEEP   HUSBANDRY  IN   THE   SOUTH.  65 

hundred  sheep  will  "  herd  "  or  keep  nearly  together  *  within 
a  space  which  the  shepherd  can  easily  move  around.  When 
driven  out  on  the  range  from  the  camping-ground,  they  are 
kept  constantly  moving  for  a  mile  or  two ;  the  shepherd  con- 
tinually moving  around  the  flock,  which  is  guided  by  his 
voice.  They  snatch  their  bites  of  grass  as  they  go  slowly 
along.  They  return  in  the  same  way,  slowly  feeding,  to  the 
camping-ground,  generally  selected  on  the  southerly  side  of 
some  creek,  or  under  the  shelter  of  the  prairie-timber.  In 
rainy  or  cold  weather,  the  sheep  travel  much  more  briskly 
than  in  warm.  In  very  hot,  dry  weather,  they  often  will  not 
feed  by  day,  making  up  for  it  by  feeding  late  in  the  night. 
Thorough-bred  shepherd  dogs  have  been  hired ;  but  have  been 
found  useless,  except  to  relieve  lazy  shepherds,  who  can  do 
the  necessary  guiding  much  better  than  the  dog.  The  flocks, 
however,  are  usually  attended  by  cur  dogs,  which  are  useful 
for  frightening  away  wild  animals.  These  curs,  having  been 
suckled  when  young  upon  goats,  continue  to  attach  them- 
selves to  the  flock.  The  shepherd  dogs  were  discarded,  be- 
cause it  was  found  that,  when  they  drove  the  sheep,  they 
caused  them  to  huddle  together,  thus  making  a  great  loss  of 
feeding  time.  It  is  of  the  first  importance  to  keep  the  ani- 
mal fat.  Its  fat  condition  not  only  makes  the  fibre  strong, 
but  enables  the  sheep  to  resist  the  storms  and  cold.  If  sheep 
are  fat,  they  are  also  better  able  to  endure  occasional  drouths. 
All  the  sustenance  in  the  country  in  question  is  supplied  by 
the  natural  pasturage,  which  consists  of  different  varieties 
of  the  mesquite  grass.  A  great  superiority  of  these  grasses 
over  the  annual  grasses  of  California  consists  in  their  being 

*  Mr.  Shaeffer  gives  a  satisfactory  reason  for  the  fact,  often  stated  without 
explanation,  that  the  English  races  of  sheep,  the  Cots  wolds,  Leicesters,  &c.,  can- 
not be  kept  in  large  flocks.  The  reason  he  gives  is,  that  the  Cotswolds  will  not 
"  herd  "  or  keep  together,  like  the  merinos.  While  feeding,  they  invariably  scat- 
ter over  a  wide  domain.  A  Cotswold,  if  tired,  will  lie  down,  and  cannot  be 
driven  up  by  the  shepherd ;  and,  when  it  recovers,  is  liable  to  wander  off  and  join 
another  flock.  Mr.  Shaeffer  thinks  that  the  Cotswold  blood  should  never  be  in- 
troduced into  large  flocks  of  merino  sheep.  Without  greater  care  in  breeding 
than  the  ordinary  flock-master  can  exercise,  they  will  make  the  wool  of  the 
flocks  uneven,  and  ultimately  ruin  them. 


66  SHEEP  HUSBANDRY  IN  THE  SOUTH. 

perennial,  and  having  long  and  stout  roots,  which  cannot  be 
pulled  up  by  the  sheep,  nor  trodden  down.  Although  the  grass 
may  be  apparently  dry  during  a  drouth,  after  a  rain  it  becomes 
perfectly  green  in  a  week  or  ten  days.  The  rams,  it  may  be 
observed,  except  when  they  range  with  the  ewes,  are  confined 
in  enclosed  pastures.  They  receive  in  winter  extra  forage  ; 
either  cotton-seed  (which  is  considered  more  nourishing  than 
grain),  or,  more  generally,  oats.  A  new  variety  of  oats  has 
recently  been  grown  in  Texas,  called  the  "  Antirust."  This 
varietjr  has  been  known  to  produce  as  high  as  100  bushels  to 
the  acre,  weighing  37  pounds  to  the  bushel,  instead  of  32. 
Through  its  introduction,  the  price  of  oats  has  been  reduced 
from  about  seventy  or  seventy-five  cents  to  twenty-two  cents. 
It  is  sown  in  November,  and  fed  off  during  the  winter,  which 
increases  the  crop  of  grain.  This  variety  would  be  admirably 
adapted  to  the  Georgia  pine  lands  for  a  winter  forage  for 
sheep. 

Although  the  original  stock  upon  which  Mr.  Shaeffer's 
flocks  were  engrafted  was  principally  the  native  Mexican 
sheep,  improved  by  merino  bucks,  the  Mexican  blood  has 
been  so  completely  eradicated  as  to  show  no  trace  of  its  ex- 
istence. The  native  Mexicans  would  weigh  scarcely  more 
than  from  fifty  to  fifty-five  pounds,  gross  weight,  and  produce 
fleeces  of  poor  wool,  weighing  about  four  pounds.  The  im- 
proved sheep  of  Mr.  Shaeffer  average  for  the  whole  flock 
seven  pounds  of  unwashed  fine  wool.  His  wethers  —  or 
"muttons,"  to  adopt  the  Texan  term  —  will  weigh,  at  four 
years  old,  one  hundred  pounds  gross  weight. 

These  sheep,  which  are  of  the  best  improved  American 
merino  stock,  make  excellent  mutton.  The  mutton  fed  upon 
the  mesquite  grass  never  has  any  of  the  rankness  or  muttony 
flavor  peculiar  to  those  sheep  at  the  North.  A  great  number 
are  now  sent  from  Nueces  and  other  counties  in  Texas  to 
St.  Louis  and  Chicago,  where  they  bring  good  prices.  They 
reach  these  markets  before  the  Western  sheep  are  sheared  and 
ready  for  the  butcher ;  and  they  form  an  important  source  of 
supply  for  these  markets  in  the  spring,  coming  in  like  the 
Southern  vegetables  to  our  Northern  markets.  A  notice  has 


SHEEP   HUSBANDRY   IN   THE   SOUTH.  67 

recently  be'en  published  of  the  loading  of  ten  double-decked 
cars,  carrying  160  animals  each,  with  sheep,  at  San  Antonio, 
destined  for  the  Chicago  market,  at  a  distance  of  1,500  miles. 
One  flock  of  three-year-old  wethers  was  sold  by  Mr.  Shaeffer 
for  $3  a  head,  to  a  party  who  pastured  them  for  two  years,  in 
Texas,  receiving  their  wool  for  this  period;  and  who  sent 
them  to  market  in  New  Orleans,  at  five  years  old,  where  their 
fatness  and  the  excellence  of  their  meat  was  the  subject  of 
general  comment.  Mr.  Webster  used  often  to  say,  at  his  din- 
ner-table, that  he  never  knew  the  secret  of  making  good  mut- 
ton until  he  visited  England,  where  he  found  that  it  was  age, 
the  best  mutton  being  five  years  old.  While  the  sheep  in- 
crease but  little  in  weight  after  the  third  year,  the  meat  con- 
stantly improves  in  quality.  It  may  be  readily  seen  how  easy 
it  is  to  obtain  good  mutton  where  the  food  costs  absolutely 
nothing,  and  almost  the  only  cost  of  keeping  the  sheep  till 
full  maturity  is  the  interest  of  the  capital,  while  the  sheep 
are  all  the  time  producing  their  semi-annual  returns  of  wool. 

The  flocks  in  this  country  are  kept  up  by  the  constant  pur- 
chase of  regenerators.  These  are  the  rams  raised  in  New 
York,  Vermont,  and  Ohio,  by  skilled  breeders,  who  find  this 
much  more  profitable  than  growing  large  numbers  of  sheep 
for  wool  or  mutton.  A  very  large  number  of  Northern  rams 
are  sold  in  Texas.  Mr.  Shaeffer  has  himself  purchased  over 
800  at  the  North,  many  of  them  from  Dr.  Randall.  There 
are  at  present  five  hundred  rams  in  Corpus  Christi ;  all  which 
will  be  sold  at  prices  ranging  from  $30  to  $50,  and  Very  choice 
animals  for  $100.  The  Texas  sheep  husbandry  is  thus  the 
means  of  keeping  up  the  most  profitable  branch  of  sheep  cul- 
ture at  the  North,  —  a  branch  which  may  be  carried  on  upon 
the  highest-priced  lands.  The  high-priced  rams  are  kept  in 
Texas  two  or  three  years,  and  sold  at  a  less  price  to  persons 
commencing  the  sheep  business  with  but  little  capital. 

It  had  been  the  custom  for  the  Texan  flock-masters  to  sell 
the  high-bred  rams  produced  from  their  own  flocks,  only  at 
the  high  prices  demanded  by  the  Northern  breeders.  Mr. 
Shaeffer  early  saw  that  he  could  benefit  his  country  better,  and 
do  as  well  for  himself,  by  changing  this  system.  He  found 


68  SHEEP  HUSBANDRY  IN  THE  SOUTH. 

that  the  young  men  of  his  country  going  into  the  sheep 
business  could  not  pay  these  high  prices,  and  make  a  living. 
He  therefore  reduced  the  prices  of  the  high-bred  rams  which 
he  had  raised  in  Texas,  to  from  five  to  ten  dollars,  and  sold  a 
great  many  more  by  so  doing.  This  had  the  effect  of  greatly 
extending  the  improvement  of  the  flocks  in  the  country. 
Another  step  taken  by  him  was  important  for  the  develop- 
ment of  the  country  in  the  direction  of  sheep-growing.  Mr. 
Shaeffer  found  that  contests  were  constantly  occurring  be- 
tween the  cattle-herders  and  the  shepherds.  He,  therefore, 
began  gradually  to  purchase  all  the  lands  he  required :  his  ex- 
ample was  followed  by  others ;  and,  at  present,  the  greater 
part  of  the  land  in  the  sheep-region  is  held  in  freehold  by 
the  respective  flock-masters. 

There  has  now  been  so  long  and  extensive  an  experience  in 
this  country  as  to  reduce  the  methods  of  the  peculiar  pastoral 
sheep-husbandry  to  a  well-established  system,  which  is  so 
simple  that  it  may  be  easily  learned  by  any  intelligent  per- 
son. The  plant  required  for  the  business,  except  the  first 
stock  of  ewes  and  rams,  is  exceedingly  small.  No  buildings 
are  required,  if  we  except  the  covered  platform  for  shearing. 
A  rude  camp  is  all  that  is  necessary  for  the  flock-master,  and 
a  wagon  with  a  pair  of  horses  for  his  supplies,  —  of  course,  he 
will  have  a  saddle  horse.  The  well-arranged  ranche  is  an 
after  luxury,  to  be  earned  by  the  profits  of  the  enterprise. 
The  aim  is  to  have  flocks  of  at  least  1,000  or  1,100  head,  for 
each  of  which  one  shepherd  —  invariably  a  native  Mexican, 
called  &pastore  —  is  required.  It  is  desirable  that  the  proprie- 
tor should  have  at  least  three  flocks  of  this  number.  The 
separate  flocks,  each  with  its  shepherd,  are  so  located  that 
they  can  be  brought  at  night  to  a  central  camp,  where  the 
laccierro,  or  sheep-overseer,  also  a  native  Mexican,  is  estab- 
lished. This  overseer  is  necessary,  in  all  cases,  to  relieve  the 
shepherds  in  case  of  accident,  and  to  cook  their  rations.  The 
baccierros,  as  a  class,  are  remarkable  for  their  fidelity.  The 
impedimenta  of  the  camp,  if  they  may  be  called  by  this  name, 
consist  only  of  the  rudest  cooking  utensils  and  the  stores  of 
provisions ;  no  shelter  being  required,  and  the  bed  of  the 


SHEEP   HUSBANDRY  IN   THE  SOUTH.  09 

shepherd  being  a  sheep-skin.  The  food  or  rations  of  the  shep- 
herd are  corn  for  tortillas,  or,  sometimes,  flour,  coffee,  and 
fresh  meat,  no  pork  or  bacon  being  used.  The  fresh  meat  is 
almost  invariably  supplied  by  goats,  which  are  pastured  with 
the  sheep,  for  this  purpose.  They  cost  about  a  dollar  a  head. 
Their  flesh  is  excellent,  and  preferred  by  the  Mexicans  to 
any  other.  The  quantity  of  goats'  meat  which  the  pastor e 
will  consume  is  enormous ;  the  consumption  being  about  one 
goat  a  week  to  the  shepherd. 

The  shearing  seasons  are  the  busiest  times  for  the  Texan 
flock-master,  not  only  on  account  of  the  number  of  extra 
hands  to  be  overlooked,  but  because  upon  the  care  exercised 
at  these  periods,  in  culling,  depends  the  future  character  of 
the  flocks  ;  and  the  tying  up  of  the  wool  nicely  is  important 
for  its  sale.  The  shearings  take  "place  twice  a  year.  The 
spring  shearing  commences  about  April  15th,  and  the  fall 
shearing  about  Sept.  15th.  The  shearings  continue  from 
three  to  four  weeks,  according  to  the  weather.  The  practice 
of  two  shearings  a  year  has  been  adopted,  from  the  experi- 
ence that  it  is  most  advantageous  for  the  warm  climate  of 
Texas.  It  has  been  a  mooted  question,  whether  there  is 
more  profit  in  shearing  twice  a  year  than  once.  By  shearing 
twice,  the  wool,  of  course,  is  shorter ;  is  fitted  for  only  one 
purpose,  —  that  of  clothing;  and  brings  a  less  price. per  pound. 
The  high  prices  of  wools  for  combing  purposes,  for  which 
many  of  the  improved  wools  of  Texas,  if  suffered  to  grow  to 
their  full  length,  are  well  adapted,  is  lost ;  and  there  is  the 
additional  expense  of  the  extra  shearing.  But,  on  the  other 
hand,  the  sheep  sheared  twice  a  year  are  healthier,  and  keep 
fatter ;  and  the  shearing  checks  the  scab,  if  there  is  any  ten- 
dency to  this  disease.  The  flock-master  gets  the  money  for 
his  wool  twice  a  year,  instead  of  once ;  an  important  consid- 
eration where  the  least  rate  of  interest  is  one  per  cent  a  month. 
The  double  shearing  is  especially  advantageous  to  the  lambs. 
By  giving  them  their  first  shearing  in  August,  to  be  repeated 
in  the  next  spring,  their  health  and  growth  are  greatly  pro- 
moted, and,  consequently,  the  general  increase  of  the  flock. 
Mr.  Shaeffer  believes  it  would  be  advantageous  to  shear  the 


70  SHEEP    HUSBANDRY   IN   THE   SOUTH. 

lambs  twice,  even  at  the  North.  Seeing  the  lambs  in  the 
flock  of  an  eminent  breeder,  in  Missouri,  failing,  Mr.  Shaeffer 
recommended  immediate  shearing.  The  advice  was  followed, 
and  all  were  saved;  one  of  these  lambs  (a  ram),  when  grown, 
was  afterwards  sold  for  $150. 

The  shearing  in  Texas  is  all  performed  by  Mexicans,  from 
both  sides  of  the  river  Rio  Grande ;  many  coming  in,  for  this 
purpose,  even  from  as  far  as  Monterey.  They  shear  by  the 
head ;  the  usual  price  being  $3.50  per  hundred  for  fine  sheep. 
The  shearers  average  about  thirty  head  a  day.  The  shearing 
is  performed  on  a  floor  or  platform,  especially  constructed  for 
this  purpose.  The  most  careful  flock -masters  have  this  floor 
protected  by  a  roof.  The  barn  floors  of  the  North,  it  must 
be  remembered,  are  not  known  in  Texas.  In  shearing,  the 
Mexicans  tie  down  the  sheep  upon  the  floor,  usually  about 
ten  at  a  time.  This  time  the  flock-master  improves  for  ex- 
amining his  sheep  and  the  character  of  their  fleeces.  He  selects 
those  which  are  to  be  culled  out  on  account  of  age  or  defects 
of  fleece,  or  those  which  are  to  be  preserved  for  special  uses 
in  breeding;  makes  the  proper  marks  upon  the  animals,  duly 
entering  them  into  his  sheep-book.  The  wool  from  the  spring 
shearing  is  tied  up  in  fleeces ;  the  fall  shearing,  being  light, 
is  put  in  sacks,  without  being  tied.  The  packing  the  wool 
in  sacks,  Although  it  cannot  be  dispensed  with,  is  consid- 
ered disadvantageous  to  the  grower  of  the  wools  ;  as  wool 
from  inferior  fleeces,  or  an  inferior  part  of  the  body,  is  liable 
to  be  mixed  with  better  wool,  and  to  prejudice  the  whole  lot 
to  the  buyer.  It  is  believed  that  a  profitable  enterprise,  and 
one  very  advantageous  to  the  Texan  growers,  would  be  the 
establishment  in  that  country  of  extensive  wool-scouring 
establishments,  like  those  in  Belgium  and  France.  The 
facility  of  obtaining  scoured  wool  would  be  advantageous  to 
manufacturers  with  small  capital  and  establishments,  and  in 
saving  of  freight.  The  sheep  in  Texas,  it  must  be  observed, 
are  never  washed.  The  water  is  calcareous;  and  perhaps 
contains  iron,  because  it  makes  the  wool  black. 

Even  with  the  rich  pastures  of  Texas,  it  is  deemed  desira- 
ble to  have  at  least  two  acres  to  every  sheep.  It  is  of  the 


SHEEP   HUSBANDRY  IN  THE  SOUTH.  71 

first  importance  that  the  range  should  not  be  overstocked. 
A  much  larger  range  is  required  than  in  regular,  enclosed 
pastures,  over  which  the  sheep  scatter  as  soon  as  they  are 
driven  to  them ;  while  in  the  open  range,  under  the  care  of 
the  herder,  much  of  the  grass  is  trodden  down  by  the  sheep 
passing  from  one  point  to  another  in  compact  flocks,  from 
their  sleeping  grounds.  The  proportion  of  bucks  required 
for  the  ewes  is  larger  than  in  the  North,  as  the  bucks  run 
with  the  ewes  on  the  range  about  five  weeks.  Three  bucks 
are  required  for  every  hundred  ewes.  The  main  lambing 
takes  place  from  Feb.  20  to  April  1.  It  is  an  interesting 
observation  in  regard  to  lambing,  that  it  is  attended  with 
much  less  danger  and  difficulty  where  the  sheep  live  in  the 
natural  state  of  wild  animals,  than  under  a  more  artificial  sys- 
tem. This  applies,  also,  to  the  general  health  of  the  animals. 
During  the  lambing  season,  in  the  evening  or  next  morning, 
after  the  flock  of  ewes,  with  the  lambs  dropped  during  the 
day,  —  say  from  fifty  to  one  hundred,  —  are  driven  into  the 
camping-ground,  the  ewes  with  the  newly  dropped  lambs  are 
separated  from  the  flock,  and  suffered  to  rest  until  the  middle 
of  the  day,  near  the  camping-ground.  The  next  day,  they  are 
moved  to  another  camp-ground,  to  give  place  to  those  which 
come  on  that  day ;  the  last  comers  to  join  those  which  came 
on  the  previous  day.  This  continues  until  a  flock  of  about 
500  ewes  and  500  lambs  is  made  up,  which  is  kept  separate. 
It  is  not  safe  to  calculate,  one  year  with  another,  that  the  num- 
ber of  lambs  raised  will  be  more  than  eighty  per  cent  of  the 
ewes. 

All  the  ewes  which  lose  their  lambs  for  any  cause  are 
turned  in  with  bucks,  by  the  first  of  June,  to  lamb  in  No- 
vember. 

Our  informant  has  but  little  faith  in  estimates  of  profits, 
as  the  circumstances  vary  so  much  in  the  situation  of  the 
establishment,  and  the  personal  and  economical  habits  of  the 
flock-master.  He  has  consented,  however,  to  make  a  state- 
ment of  the  necessary  expenses  and  results,  with  one  flock  of 
1,100  sheep,  in  one  year. 


72  SHEEP   HUSBANDRY   IN   THE   SOUTH. 


EXPENSES. 

Shepherds  and  wages  at  $11  per  month  and  rations $250.00 

Shearing  and  sundry  expenses  at  shearing-time .........       77.00 

Dipping  for  scab,  four  cents  per  head 44.00 

Sheep  dip  for  worms 5.00 

Extra  labor 20.00 

$396.00 
Salt  is  not  required  near  the  coast  or  with  mesquite  grass. 

RECEIPTS. 

1,100  sheep,  at  5  Ibs.  per  head,  equals  5,500  Ibs.  wool ; 
at  20  cents  per  pound 20 

Cash  receipts $1,100.00  $1,100.00 

80  per  cent  increase,  880  head  at  $3.00 2,640.00 

$3,740.00 

Less  expenses $396.00 

Interest  on  $5,000  at  12  per  cent 600.00 

Rent  of  place 100.00 

$1,096.00      1,096.00 
$2,644.00 

In  this  statement,  the  expenses  of  the  overseer  are  not  in- 
cluded. One  is  required,  in  all  cases ;  but  one  will  suffice  for 
three  or  four  flocks.  It  is  best  to  start  with  1,600  head  of 
ewes ;  because  after  lambing  they  can  be  divided  into  three 
flocks  of  ewes  with  their  lambs,  with  an  expense  of  but  one 
baccierro  and  one  camp,  and  three  shepherds.  At  the  end  of 
five  months,  the  lambs  are  weaned  and  taken  from  their 
mothers.  Then,  until  the  next  lambing  time,  which  will  take 
place  in  the  succeeding  March,  the  sheep  can  be  well  cared 
for  by  only  two  shepherds  and  one  overseer  ;  the  ewes  being 
in  one  flock,  and  the  lambs  in  another. 

The  procedure  and  increase  may  be  illustrated  as  fol- 
lows :  — 

We  will  suppose  the  new  flock-master  commences 

October,  1876,  with  ewes 1,600 

March,  1877,  the  ewes  produce  80  per  cent  of  lambs 1,280 

September,  1877,  weans  the  lambs ;  places  them  in  one  flock,  and  the 

ewes  in  another,  making  only  two  flocks. 


SHEEP   HUSBANDRY   IN   THE   SOUTH.  73 

March,  1878,  there  are  ewes 1,600 

„          „  „        yearlings ;    one-half  ewes,  and  the    other   half 

wethers 1,280 

lambs  as  1877 1,280 

Making  four  flocks ;  three  of  ewes  and  lambs,  and  one  of  yearlings   .    .    4,160 

October,  1878,  there  are  breeding  ewes 1,600 

„         „  „         young  ewes 640 

Total  to  go  to  ram  in  October 2,240 

March*  1879,  there  are  wethers,  two-years  old 640 

„          „              „        yearlings  (ewes  and  wethers) 1,280 

„          „              „        breeding  ewes 2,240 

„        lambs 2,240 

6,400 

October,  1879,  there  are  breeding  ewes 2,240 

„          „  „        yearling  ewes 640 

Making  number  of  ewes  to  go  to  ram 2,880 

March,  1880,  there  are  breeding  ewes 2,880 

lambs 2,880 

„          „             „        wethers  three  years  old 640 

„       two           „        640 

„          „             „        yearlings,  ewes,  and  wethers 2,240 

Total  number  March,  1880 9,280 

Advice  to  Emigrants.  —  The  adventurer  from  a  distance, 
seeking  to  invest  in  sheep  husbandry  in  Texas,  is  advised  to 
proceed  directly  either  to  Corpus  Christi  or  San  Antonio, 
from  each  of  which  points  he  can  make  observations  with 
convenience,  and  obtain  information  as  to  desirable  locations. 
He  should  spend  three  or  four  months  looking  around  for  a 
range.  The  ewes  may  be  carried  from  the  West,  or  bought 
in  Texas.  Mexican  ewes  can  be  purchased  at  75  cents  per 
head,  and  improved  sheep  for  from  $1.50  to  $4.  Texas 
raised  rams  can  be  bought  for  $10,  and  imported  rams  for 
from  |30  to  $50.  It  would  be  more  safe  to  rent  a  tract 
of  land,  which  he  can  probably  obtain  at  a  very  cheap  rate,  — 
say  $100  per  year  for  enough  land  to  feed  two  flocks  of  sheep 
of  1,100  each.  As  he  may  not  like  the  business  or  the  local- 
ity, it  would  be  more  prudent,  at  first,  not  to  purchase  a 
range.  If  he  is  willing  to  incur  greater  risks,  to  secure  the 

10 


74  SHEEP   HUSBANDRY   IN   THE   SOUTH. 

proprietorship  of  an  extensive  range  at  a  moderate  price  he 
may  go  higher  into  the  country,  where  the  land  belongs  to 
the  State.  A  640-acre  certificate  of  State  land  can  be  bought 
for  about  $200,  or  a  certificate  of  the  alternate  lands  granted 
to  railroads  as  Jow  as  $100.  Generally,  the  expense  to  secure 
a  patent,  including  certificate  and  cost  of  surveying,  would 
amount  to  about  50  cents  to  the  acre.  As  two  acres  are 
required  for  a  sheep,  it  will  be  seen,  from  the  statement  of  in- 
crease before  given,  that  the  command  of  a  very  broad  range 
is  required  to  make  the  increase  available  ;  and  that,  with  such 
a  command,  there  are  chances  for  very  large  profits.  The  ad- 
venturer, if  he  has  a  family,  must  place  them  in  some  of  the 
towns  or  villages  most  convenient  to  his  range.  His  personal 
presence  on  his  range  will  be  indispensable  for  his  success, 
and  he  will  find  ample  occupation.  But  he  can  safely  trust 
the  Mexican  baccierros,  when  making  occasional  visits  to  his 
family. 

The  advantages  of  Texas  for  sheep-growing  are  now  at- 
tracting persons  of  experience  in  Australia,  and  English  and 
Scotch  emigrants  with  capital.  Besides  our  informant  with 
his  15,000  sheep,  there  are  others  in  Nueces  and  Duval  Coun- 
ties with  flocks  of  ten  to  twenty  thousand  head.  The  Calla- 
han  flock,  in  Star  County,  —  the  proprietor  living  at  Laredo, — 
numbers  sixty  thousand  head.  When  we  see  how  rapid  the 
increase  is,  and  that  there  are  80,000,000  acres  of  land  still 
unlocated  in  Texas,  we  can  see  that,  if  there  is  no  legislation 
to  disturb  the  wool  business  of  the  country,  and  the  Mexi- 
can and  the  Indian  depredations  are  checked,  it  will  not  be 
many  years  before  Texas  will  rival  Australia.  Mr.  Shaeffer 
states,  as  an  illustration  of  the  rapidity  with  which  sheep  hus- 
bandry is  advancing  in  this  State,  that,  in  1876,  San  Antonio 
received  but  600,000  pounds  of  wool,  which  is  sent  through 
Galveston.  In  1877,  she  received  2,000,000  pounds.  The 
wool  of  Nueces  and  the  neighboring  counties  is  shipped  from 
Corpus  Christi.  In  1866,  there  were  shipped  only  600,000 
pounds.  This  year  there  will  be  shipped  6,500,000  pounds. 

The  following  statement,  illustrative  of  the  profits  which 
may  be  derived  from  sheep-growing  in  Texas,  was  made  to 
us  by  Colonel  John  S.  Ford,  a  State  Senator,  and  formerly  a 


SHEEP   HUSBANDRY   IN   THE   SOUTH.  75 

member  of  the  Congress  of  Texas,  before  annexation.  We 
give  it  exactly  in  the  language  of  Colonel  Ford,  as  noted  by 
us  and  subsequently  read  to  him. 

"  Dr.  Thomas  Kearney,  formerly  Collector  of  Customs  of  the  port 
of  Corpus  Christi,  and  Major  James  Carr,  made,  in  1870  or  1872,  an 
investment  of  $5,000  in  sheep  husbandry  ;  bought  ranch,  and  buildings 
about  sixty  miles  north-west  from  Laredo,  Webb  County,  Texas,  —  the 
land  about  13,000  acres  and  the  sheep  well  improved.  At  the  end  of 
five  years,  Dr.  Kearney  sold  out  his  interest  to  Carr,  —  that  is,  one- 
half  interest  for  $20,000.  In  August,  1877,  Carr  refused  a  $60,000 
offer,  which  he  had  from  William  Votaus,  for  his  sheep  ranch  with  the 
sheep ;  the  exact  facts  being  that  Votaus  offered  $30,000  in  cash,  and 
one  of  the  best-improved  places  on  the  San  Antonio  River,  which  had 
cost  him  about  $60,000." 

Mr.  Shaeffer  says  that  Carr  ought  to  have  taken  the  offer. 

Colonel  Ford  fully  confirms  the  statements  about  the  Mex- 
ican and  Indian  depredations,  before  made,  which  extend  as 
far  as  a  hundred  miles  from  the  Rio  Grande.  There  is  no 
necessity  for  this  confirmation,  however,  to  any  one  who  will 
read  the  exhaustive  reports,  prepared  by  Mr.  Schleicher,  of 
the  Texas  delegation  in  Congress.  Colonel  Ford  says  that 
the  Mexicans  do  not  run  the  sheep  off,  because  the  sheep 
cannot  be  made  to  travel  fast  enough ;  but  they  kill  the  shep- 
herds. 

Obstacles  to  Sheep-growing  in  Texas.  —  Conversations  with 
many  intelligent  Texans,  and  the  perusal  of  many  documents 
relative  to  Mexican  outrages,  have  led  us  to  fully  adopt  the 
opinion  expressed  by  one  of  our  correspondents,  that  the  most 
formidable  obstacle  to  the  almost  indefinite  extension  of  sheep 
husbandry  in  Texas  is  the  liabilit}^  of  the  territory  to  Mexican" 
and  Indian  depredations.  The  opinion  widely  prevails  at  the 
North  that  the  border  troubles  in  Texas  have  been  exagger- 
ated for  the  purpose  of  provoking  a  war  with  Mexico.  In  our 
belief,  there  is  no  foundation  for  this  opinion.  The  extent  of 
the  depredations,  and  their  ruinous  effect  upon  settlements,  are 
proved  by  incontestable  evidence.  A  peaceful  and  compara- 
tively inexpensive  remedy  for  the  border  troubles  is  strongly 
urged  by  influential  citizens  of  Texas.  It  is  the  granting  a 
moderate  subsidy  (six  thousand  dollars  per  mile)  to  a  railroad 


76  SHEEP    HUSBANDRY  IN  THE  SOUTH. 

projected  from  Galveston  to  Camargo,  in  Mexico,  near  the  Rio 
Grande,  —  a  distance  of  352  miles.*  It  is  reasonably  urged 
that  this  road  to  Camargo  —  the  key  to  the  commerce  of  Mex- 
ico, by  a  land  route  —  would  establish  friendly  commercial 
relations  with  Mexico,  and  heal  the  irritation  which  keeps  up 
the  border  troubles,  and  thus  prevent  war ;  while,  in  case 
of  war,  it  would  furnish  the  means  of  quickly  transporting 
troops  and  supplies  to  the  most  important  point  of  defence. 
If  the  proposed  road  will  accomplish  this,  it  will  directly  pro- 
mote the  interests  of  the  cotton  and  wool  manufacturers  of 
the  North.f  To  Texas,  more  than  any  other  State,  do  the 
textile  manufacturers  of  the  North  look  for  the  supply  of 
their  mills.  No  other  State  is  making  such  rapid  progress  in 
population,  production,  and  wealth.  With  an  area  which  ex- 
ceeds that  of  the  German  Empire  by  about  sixty  thousand 
miles  ;  with  a  capacity  to  produce  almost  all  the  products  of 
the  temperate  zone  ;  with  sugar  lands  on  the  Southern  border 
which  could  yield  double  the  quantity  of  sugar  and  molasses 
required  for  our  whole  consumption,  —  Texas  is  above  all  pre- 
eminent for  its  resources  in  textile  material.  On  less  than 
one-half  of  one  per  cent  of  its  area,  it  produced,  in  1875,  one- 
half  of  all  the  cotton  consumed  in  the  United  States;  and 
four  per  cent  of  its  area  would  be  capable  of  producing  all 
the  cotton  now  consumed  in  Europe  and  the  United  States,  — 
over  six  million  bales. $  Add  to  this  its  capacity  for  wool  pro- 

*  "  No  such  thorough  and  satisfactory  mode  of  settling  Indian  troubles  has 
been  discovered  as  the  construction  of  a  railroad  through  the  Indian  country. 
The  war-whoop  of  the  savage  is  never  heard  within  sound  of  the  locomotive 
whistle.  The  civilization  that  is  represented  by  the  church,  the  school-house, 
and  the  farm,  the  Indian  regards  as  his  legitimate  prey ;  but,  when  it  comes 
clothed  with  the  thunder  of  the  advancing  railroad-train,  he  retires  from  the 
contest."  —  Speech  of  Hon.  William  Windon,  of  Minnesota,  in  the  U.  S.  Senate,  on 
the  Northern  Pacific  Railroad. 

t  We  refer  to  this  scheme  as  only  one  of  the  means  of  peacefully  solving  the 
border  troubles.  A  still  broader  scheme  in  the  same  direction,  but  with  even  a 
more  modest  demand  for  government  patronage,  is  the  proposal  for  a  govern- 
ment survey  of  a  railroad  route  from  Austin,  Texas,  to  the  Rio  Grande,  and 
from  thence  to  the  Port  of  Topolovocampo,  on  the  Pacific ;  the  distance  from 
San  Antonio  to  the  western  ocean  being  less  than  seven  hundred  miles.  A 
railroad  in  this  direction  would  be  a  peaceful  solution  of  the  Mexican  question. 
J  Report  of  Mr.  Edward  Atkinson  on  cotton,  at  the  International  Exhibition. 


SHEEP   HUSBANDRY   IN   THE   SOUTH.  77 

duction,  and  we  have  a  State  without  parallel  in  the  extent 
of  its  natural  resources.  Such  a  State  should  not  be  grudged 
the  trivial  sum  required  to  establish  peace  upon  its  borders. 

We  are  compelled  to  omit  much,  in  this  paper,  which  is 
demanded  to  give  a  full  description  of  the  sheep  husbandry 
of  the  South.  But  neither,  our  object  nor  our  space  would 
permit  us  to  make  this  paper  a  gazetteer  of  the  South  in  its 
sheep  resources  and  production.  We  have  made  no  reference 
to  Western  Virginia,  with  its  splendid  sheep  husbandry, — 
including  the  Panhandle,  where  the  best  fine  wool  in  the 
United  States  is  grown ;  because  this  country,  from  its  con- 
tiguity, really  belongs  to  the  Ohio  and  Western  Pennsylvania 
wool-producing  region.  Neither  have  we  made  reference  to 
the  mutton  and  combing-wool  production  of  Virginia,  Mary- 
land, and  Delaware,  although  it  is  a  very  important  feature 
of  the  husbandry  of  these  States ;  because  there  is  nothing 
characteristic  and  peculiar  to  distinguish  it  from  the  industry 
of  New  Jersey.  Missouri,  as  a  wool-producing  State,  belongs " 
rather  to  the  West  than  the  South.  We  ought  not,  however, 
to  omit  an  enumeration  of  the  sheep  in  the  States  south  of 
Mason  and  Dixon's  line.  On  the  first  of  January,  their  num- 
bers were  as  follows,  according  to  the  Department  of  Agri- 
culture :  — 

NUMBER  OF  SHEEP  IN  SOUTHERN  STATES,  JANUARY,  1878. 

STATES.  Number  of  sheep. 

Delaware 35,000 

Maryland 151,200 

Virginia 422,000 

North  Carolina 490,000 

South  Carolina 175,000 

Georgia 382,300 

Florida 56,500 

Alabama 270,000 

Mississippi 250,000 

Louisiana 125,000 

Texas 3,674,700 

Arkansas 285,000 

Tennessee 850,000 

West  Virginia 649,900 

Kentucky 900,000 

Missouri 1,271,000 

Total 9,887,600 


78  SHEEP   HUSBANDRY  IN   THE  SOUTH, 


NUMBER  OF  SHEEP  IN  THE  NORTHERN  AND  WESTERN  STATES, 

JANUARY,  1878. 
STATES.  Number  of  sheep. 

Maine 525,800 

New  Hampshire 239,900 

Vermont 461,400 

Massachusetts 60,300 

Rhode  Island 24,500 

Connecticut 92,500 

New  York 1,518,100 

New  Jersey 128,300 

Pennsylvania 1,607,600 

Ohio 3,783,000 

Michigan '. 1,750,000 

Indiana 1,092,700 

Illinois 1,258,500 

Wisconsin 1,323,700 

Minnesota 300,000 

Iowa ' 560,000 

Kansas 156,000 

Nebraska 62,400 

California 6,561,000 

Oregon 1,074,600 

Nevada 72,000 

Colorado 600,000 

The  Territories 2,600,000 

Total 25,852,300 

GENERAL  CONSIDERATIONS. 

Relation  of  Wool-production  to  Customs  Duties.  —  This  pa- 
per, intended  for  circulation  at  the  South,  —  where  theo- 
retical opinions  on  questions  of  political  economy,  differing 
from  our  own,  largely  prevail,  —  is  no  place  for  the  discus- 
sion of  the  vexed  questions  of  free-trade  and  protection. 
But  it  would  be  a  false  delicacy  on  our  part  wholly  to 
ignore  the  absolute  dependence  of  the  sheep  husbandry  of 
the  United  States  upon  a  wise  revenue  legislation.  The 
practical  fact  exists,  that  the  revenue  of  the  United  States, 
for  a  long  time  to  come,  must  be  principally  obtained  from 
duties  on  foreign  imports.  All,  independently  of  their  theo- 
retical opinions,  will  admit  that  these  duties  should  be  so 
imposed  as  to  least  injure  the  national  industries.  Many, 
who  are  not  theoretical  protectionists,  will  go  even  farther, 


SHEEP   HUSBANDRY   IN    THE   SOUTH.  79 

and  admit  that  the  encouragement  of  a  national  wool  indus- 
try rises  above  all  questions  of  economical  theory,  and  that 
it  comes  within  those  exceptions  to  the  theory  of  free -trade 
which  even  Chevalier,  Mill,  and  Bright  are  compelled  to 
concede,  for  the  necessities  of  a  nation's  existence.  Wool- 
growing,  unlike  the  production  of  any  other  textile  material, 
can  be  advantageously  pursued  in  every  State  of  our  terri- 
tory. No  single  industry  can  be  mentioned  so  cosmopolitan 
in  its  character  as  that  of  the  production  and  manipulation 
of  wool,  or  to  which  national  encouragement  can  be  given 
with  less  risk  of  rousing  sectional  jealousies.  The  wool- 
industry  is  eminently  national  in  its  character,  because  it 
subserves  the  two  great  primal  necessities  of  a  people,  — 
those  of  food  and  clothing.  Sheep,  by  their  manure,  are 
capable  of  doubling  the  product  of  the  wheat-lands  on  which 
they  are  raised.  Their  flesh  is  the  most  nourishing  of  all 
animal  food.  A  sheep  husbandry,  made  abundant  by  legisla- 
tive encouragement  of  wool-production  is  the  most  effectual 
means  of  diminishing  the  cost  of  all  animal  food  to  our  whole 
population,  and  thus  may  be  truly  said  to  reimburse  manifold 
the  alleged  increased  cost  of  clothing  to  our  people  caused 
by  the  protective  duties  on  wool.  The  wool-industry  is  a 
necessity  for  the  highest  national  development ;  because  it 
promotes  the  highest  arts  of  stock-breeding,  is  an  indispensa- 
ble adjunct  to  the  most  advanced  form  of  agriculture,  — 
a  mixed  husbandry,  and  its  pastoral  form  is  the  pioneer  to 
new  settlements.  In  its  manufacturing  department,  it  more 
than  any  other  industry  promotes  the  highest  mechanical, 
chemical,  and  decorative  arts  ;  and  is  the  invariable  precursor 
of  a  diversified  manufacture,  with  its  attendant  results  of 
wealth  and  culture. 

These  considerations  are  suggested,  not  as  claims  for  high 
protective  duties  on  wool  or  manufactures  of  wool,  but  as 
reasons  for  deliberation  and  wisdom  in  fixing  the  duties  on 
those  articles  which  are  required  for  the  national  revenue. 
The  most  intelligent  wool  manufacturers  admit  the  justice 
and  propriety  of  reasonably  protective  duties  on  wool,  the 
only  means  of  affording  national  encouragement  to  the  sheep- 


80  SHEEP    HUSBANDRY   IN   THE   SOUTH. 

industry  of  the  country,  —  which  we  must  have  for  food  as 
well  as  clothing.  It  is  doubtful  if  even  Texas,  with  its  won- 
derful pastoral  advantages,  could  ever  compete,  without  the 
aid  of  protective  duties,  with  the  Pampas  of  South  America, 
in  the  production  of  wool.  The  cost  of  transporting  wool  is 
so  slight  —  but  two  cents  per  pound  even  from  Australia  to 
New  York  —  that  distance  is  no  protection  ;  and  the  Texan 
flock-master  cannot  procure  labor  for  the  wages  of  the  Indian 
shepherds  of  the  Pampas  :  while,  like  all  other  producers  in 
this  country,  he  is  subject  to  the  demands  imposed  by  Amer- 
ican civilization  and  our  high  local  taxation.  Even  if  the 
American  flock-master  could  produce  his  wool  as  cheaply  as 
the  foreigner,  he  must  be  defended  against  the  inpouring  of 
foreign  surpluses  which,  without  defensive  barriers,  are  liable 
at  any  moment  to  break  down  our  markets. 

Adjustment  of  Duties  on  Manufactures  to  Duties  on  Wool.  — 
All  the  duties  imposed  for  the  protection  of  wool-growers,  it 
need  not  be  said,  are  paid  by  the  wool  manufacturers,  who 
thus  labor  under  a  burden  from  which  the  cotton,  linen,  and 
silk  manufacturers  are  free  ;  all  the  raw  material  for  the 
two  first  being  produced  at  home,  and  raw  silk  being  free 
from  duty.  Notwithstanding  the  apparently  high  duty 
imposed  upon  fabrics  of  wool,  it  is  a  fact  capable  of  demonstra- 
tion, that,  after  deducting  the  duty  which  the  wool  manufac- 
turers of  this  country  pay  upon  the  foreign  wool  which  they 
consume,  or  the  amount  by  which  the  domestic  wool  they 
consume  is  enhanced  by  the  wool-duty,  the  wool  manufacture 
of  this  country,  under  the  existing  laws,  receives  less  protec- 
tion than  any  branch  of  the  textile  industry.  The  fact  that 
the  wool  manufacturer  must  pay  the  wool-duty  makes  it  of 
the  highest  importance  to  him  that  the  relations  of  the  duties 
on  the  wool  manufactures  should  be  accurately  adjusted  to 
the  duties  on  wool.  The  proper  relations  of  these  duties  is 
to  him  of  far  more  importance  than  the  amount  of  the  pro- 
tective duty  he  may  receive. 

The  American  wool  manufacturer  has  to  compete  with 
European  manufacturers,  who  invariably  have  their  wool  free 
of  duty.  Since  1861,  our  tariff  laws  have  recognized  that  our 


SHEEP  HUSBANDRY  IN   THE   SOUTH.  81 

wool  manufacturers  should  be  placed  in  the  same  position  as 
if,  like  the  European  manufacturers,  their  wool  were  exempt 
from  duty.  A  specific  duty  is  placed  upon  the  cloth,  intended 
to  exactly  reimburse  the  duty  paid  on  the  wool.  But  this 
specific  duty  gives  the  manufacturer  no  protection :  and  he 
has  at  least  equal  claims  to  protection  with  the  wool-grower ; 
for,  irrespectively  of  the  wisdom  of  the  policy  of  any  protec- 
tion, if  it  is  adopted,  it  should  be  applied  to  all  domestic 
industries.  Our  tariff  laws  therefore  provide,  in  addition  to 
the  specific  duty  on  fabrics,  neutralizing  the  wool-duty,  an 
ad  valorem  duty  for  the  protection  of  the  manufacturer.  This 
system  of  compound  duties  is  the  only  one  which  will  permit 
protection  to  the  grower  without  injury  to  the  manufacturer. 
It  was  adopted  after  great  deliberation,  has  proved  highly 
advantageous  to  both  interests,  is  attended  with  no  difficulty 
in  its  administration,  and  should  be  retained. 

American  Mills  the  only  Market  for  Domestic  Wool.  —  We 
have  deemed  it  proper  to  refer  to  these  highly  important 
relations  of  a  wisely  adjusted  tariff  to  the  wool  manufacture  ; 
because  the  prosperity  of  wool-production  and  sheep  hus- 
bandry at  the  South,  and  its  further  extension,  absolutely 
depend  upon  the  prosperity  of  the  American  wool  manufac- 
turers. It  has  been  shown  elsewhere  that  the  value  of  all  the 
wool  exported  from  this  country  does  not  equal  the  value  of 
the  playing-cards  which  we  have  imported.  For  many  years  to 
come,  the  sole  market  for  the  wools  of  the  South  must  be  her 
own  mills  and  those  of  the  North.  It  is  doubtful  if  the 
South  will  ever  be  able  to  export  wools  to  foreign  countries 
in  competition  with  Australia,  the  Argentine  Republic,  south- 
ern Russia,  and  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope.  The  wool-growers 
of  the  South  will,  therefore,  best  advance  their  own  interests 
by  favoring  the  national  policy  which  promotes,  by  reasona- 
ble and  just  provisions,  the  interests  of  their  consumers,  the 
manufacturers. 

Wool-  Growers'  Associations.  —  The  Southern  wool-growers 
should,  besides,  establish  direct  relations  with  their  consumers, 
the  manufacturers,  and  consult  them  in  regard  to  the  charac- 
ter of  wools  required  for  fabrics ;  but,  above  all,  should  encour- 

11 


82  SHEEP   HUSBANDRY   IN   THE   SOUTH. 

age  the  erection  of  woollen  mills  in  their  own  country,  that 
their  market  may  be  at  their  own  doors.  They  should  also 
cultivate  relations  with  the  wool-growers  of  the  North  and 
West,  and  enter  into  that  community  of  sentiment  and  purpose 
required  to  make  a  great  national  wool  industry.  For  this 
purpose,  as  well  as  for  general  improvement,  wool-growers' 
and  sheep-breeders'  associations  should  be  formed  in  each  of 
the  Southern  States,  as  has  been  done  in  many  States  at  the 
North  and  West.  Nothing  has  contributed  so  much  to  the 
marvellous  improvements  which  have  been  made  of  late  years 
in  this  country  as  these  associations.  As  an  illustration  of 
the  high  standards  of  excellence  secured  by  these  associations, 
we  give  in  a  note  the  programme  of  the  Annual  Fair  of  the 
Sheep-Breeders'  and  Wool-growers'  Association  of  the  State 
of  New  York.* 

*  Annual  Fair  of  the  New  York  State  Sheep- Breeders'  and  Wool- Growers'  Associa- 
tion, at  Hemlock  Lake,  N.  Y.,  May  1st  and  2d,  1878. 

CLASSIFICATION. 

Prizes  are  offered  on  each  division  of  three  classes  of  sheep,  as  follows:  First 
class. — AMERICAN  MERINOS.  Div.  1.  —  Bred  for  constitution,  form,  weight 
of  fleece,  quality  adapted  to  manufacture  of  domestic  woollens.  Div.  2.  — 
Bred  for  constitution,  form,  fineness  of  fleece,  quality  adapted  to  manufacture 
of  broadcloths  and  similar  fabrics.  Div.  3.  —  Bred  for  constitution,  form,  length 
of  staple  (2£  inches  at  one  year's  growth  being  required),  quality  adapted  to 
manufacture  of  delaines  and  similar  fabrics.  Second  class.  —  Div.  4.  —  COTS- 
WOLDS.  Div.  5.  —  LINCOLNS.  Div.  6.  —  LEICESTERS.  Third  Class.  —  Div.  7 
—  DOWNS,  or  MIDDLE- WOOLLED. 

PRIZES. 

Prizes  are  offered  in  each  of  the  above  divisions,  as  follows :  For  the  best  ram, 
three  years  old  and  over,  diploma;  second  best,  $10;  third  best,  $5. 

For  the  best  ram,  two  years  old  and  under  three,  diploma ;  second  best, 
$10 ;  third  best,  $5. 

For  the  best  ram,  one  year  old,  diploma ;  second  best,  $10 ;  third  best,  $5. 

For  the  best  pen  of  three  ewes,  three  years  old  and  over,  diploma ;  second 
best,  $10 ;  third  best,  $5. 

For  the  best  pen  of  three  ewes,  two  years  old  and  under  three,  diploma ; 
second  best,  $10 ;  third  best,  $5. 

For  the  best  pen  of  three  ewes,  one  year  old,  diploma;  second  best,  $10 j 
third  best,  $5. 

SWEEPSTAKES. 

The  following  Sweepstakes  Premiums  are  offered  in  each  of  the  seven  divisions :  — 
For  the  best  ram,  of  any  age,  diploma. 


SHEEP   HUSBANDRY  IN  THE  SOUTH.  83 

Sheep  Husbandry  ly  the  Colored  Population.  —  We  must  not 
ignore  a  present  serious  obstacle  to  sheep  husbandry  in  the 
South,  which  is  constantly  referred  to  in  the  reports  to  the 
Department  of  Agriculture  ;  viz.,  the  destruction  of  sheep  by 

For  the  best  flock  of  not  less  than  fifteen,  including  at 
by  exhibitor  sixty  days  next  preceding  the  Fair, 


For  the  best  stock  ram,  and  ten  of  his  progeny,  dipl 
For  the  best  pen  of  three  ewes,  of  any  age,  diploma 
Entrance-fee  for  Sweepstakes  Premium,  $2  in  additiotfmembershiiK  • 


For  the  best  pen  of  three  ewes,  of  any  age,  diploma.  ^  ^        ^     -   '     -RSJlJ 


-H/nirance-iee  lor  o weeps laices  irremium,  <$6  in  auuiuoirwjuuemyersmp.  v 

No  sheep  competing  for  the  above  prizes  are  required  to rht^hor^.  J?  A  TJ  ^ \  *^ 

SHEARING   AND   SCOURING   TEST. 

For  the  best  ram's  fleece,  $5 ;  for  the  best  ewe's  fleece,  $5.  For  the  best 
ram's  fleece,  scoured,  $5 ;  for  the  best  ewe's  fleece,  scoured,  $5.  For  the  best 
fleece  of  scoured  wool,  in  proportion  to  weight  of  carcass,  $5. 

Sheep  competing  for  the  above  prizes  must  be  shorn  on  the  grounds,  and 
weighed  before  and  after  being  shorn.  Age  of  fleece  to  be  given  in  each  case. 
The  Committee  in  making  their  awards  shall  make  weight  and  quality  com- 
bined the  leading  consideration,  and  shall  withhold  the  award  entirely  where 
there  is  not  sufficient  merit.  Entrance-fee,  $1,  in  addition  to  membership,  for 
each  sheep.  Exhibitors  to  furnish  their  own  shearers. 

Prizes  of  $5,  $3,  and  $2  will  be  awarded  to  the  first,  second,  and  third  best 
shearers. 

REGULATIONS   OF   THE   FAIR. 

1.  All  premiums  may  be  competed  for  by  residents  of  the  United  States,  or 
any  other  country.    Persons  competing  for  premiums  must  be  members  of  the 
Association,  by  the  payment  of  f  1  during  the  current  year. 

2.  No  pens  shall  be  allotted  to  exhibitors  until  the  first  morning  of  the  Fair, 
and  then  in  the  order  of  application.     (The  allotment  of  pens  will  be  under  the 
direction  of  the  General  Superintendent.) 

3.  Sheep  competing  for  premiums  must  be  entered,  and  brought  upon  the 
show-grounds,  on  the  first  day  of  the  Fair;  and  they  must  not,  without  a  special 
permit  from  the  General   Superintendent,  be  removed  therefrom  before  the 
second  day ;  nor,  on  the  second  day,  until  the  General  Superintendent  shall,  by 
direction  of  the  Executive  Board,  make  public  proclamation  that  all  exhibitors 
are  at  liberty  to  withdraw  their  sheep. 

4.  Exhibitors  will  be  required  to  answer,  under  oath,  according  to  their  best 
knowledge  and  belief,  the  questions  of  the  Examining  Committee  touching  the 
age  of  their  sheep,  the  age  of  their  fleeces,  the  manner  in  which  they  were  last 
shorn,  the  amount  and  kind  of  feed  during  the  year  preceding  the  Fair,  their 
general  treatment,  and  any  special  treatment  intended  to  affect  their  condition 
or  appearance. 

5.  No  person  shall  act  as  a  member  of  a  Viewing  Committee  who  has  any 
direct  or  indirect  pecuniary  interest  in  any  sheep  submitted  to  the  inspection  of 
said  Committee  for  a  premium. 

6.  No  premiums  shall  be  awarded  except  on  animals  of  superior  merit,  and 
then  only  such  of  the  premiums  as  the  Viewing  Committee  shall  consider  them 


84  SHEEP  HUSBANDRY   IN  THE   SOUTH. 

dogs,  and  the  depredations  of  lawless  negroes.  It  is  said  that 
public  opinion  among  the  masses  of  voters  who  at  present 
control  the  representatives  in  many  of  the  State  legislatures 
will  not  permit  the  enactment  of  suitable  laws  to  restrain  the 
nuisance  of  dogs.  "  Local  laws,"  says  Mr.  Peters,  "  for  the 
protection  of  our  flocks  from  man  and  beast,  should  be 
promptly  enacted."  "  The  main  obstacles  to  the  industry 
here "  (South  Carolina),  says  Colonel  Watts,  "  are  dogs, 
thieving  negroes,  indolence  and  ignorance.  The  .presence 
of  the  shepherd  and  the  Spanish  sheep-dog  will  remedy  the 
first ;  and  education,  the  latter."  Happily,  the  latter  influ- 
ence is  now  producing  results  in  the  South  such  as  the  most 
sanguine  friends  of  humanity  could  not  have  dreamed  of  ten 
years  ago.  It  was  shown  at  the  national  convention  of  the 
teachers  of  the  United  States,  recently  held  in  Washington, 
that  schools  are  being  organized  and  conducted  in  the  South 
after  the  best  systems  of  New  England  and  Europe  ;  and  that 
the  most  hearty  co-operation  exists  between  the  great  educa- 
tors of  the  North  and  the  South.  Let  there  be  added  to  this 
influence  the  education  which  is  effected  by  interest.  Let 
the  colored  people  of  the  South  have  the  means  pointed  out 
to  them  for  their  material  improvement.  What  means  so 
simple  and  ready  as  the  encouragement  of  sheep-growing 
among  these  people,  on  a  moderate  scale,  in  the  rural  districts  ? 
Supposing,  with  a  population  of  four  million  colored  persons 


entitled  to.     (Thus  the  third  premium,  or  the  second  and  third  premiums,  may 
be  drawn,  while  the  first  is  unawarded.) 

7.  All  reports  of  Viewing  Committee  shall  be  made  in  writing,  and  signed  by 
the  members  of  the  Committee  agreeing  to  them.     (Printed  blank  forms  of 
reports,  with  instructions  to  Viewing  Committees,  will  be  delivered  to  the 
latter.) 

8.  The  Viewing  Committee  shall  deliver  their  reports  to  the  President  or 
Secretary,  at  or  before  9  o'clock,  A.M.,  on  the  second  day  of  the  Fair. 

9.  The  Society  reserves  the  right  to  pay  the  premiums  in  full,  if  the  receipts 
are  sufficient  after  paying  expenses ;  otherwise,  to  pay  pro  rata,  according  to 
receipts  of  the  Fair. 

10.  All  sheep  intended  for  exhibition  must  be  upon  the  ground  at  12  o'clock 
M.,  the  first  day  of  the  Fair ;  at  which  time  the  entries  will  close. 

11.  All  sheep  over  two  years  old  competing  for  any  prizes  offered  by  the 
Society  must  have  been  closely  and  evenly  shorn  the  previous  year. 


SHEEP   HUSBANDRY   IN   THE  SOUTH.  85 

in  the  Southern  States,  there  are  four  hundred  thousand  fam- 
ilies, and  each  family  should  have  six  sheep,  there  would  be 
2,400,000  animals  producing  wool  and  mutton,  —  more  than 
at  present  in  all  New  England.  This  great  accession  to  the 
wealth  of  the  country  would  be  nothing  compared  with  the 
civilizing  and  humanizing  influence  of  the  pastoral  occupa- 
tion upon  the  population,  and  the  habits  of  thrift  which  it 
would  engender.  How  many  thousand  country  boys  at  the 
North  have  got  their  first  notions  of  economy  and  accumula- 
tion from  having,  for  their  own,  the  products  and  increase  of 
a  single  sheep  !  The  colored  race,  from  their  natural  gentle- 
ness, take  most  kindly  to  the  care  of  animals.  Negroes,  it 
is  well  known,  make  excellent  shepherds,  as  they  make  capi- 
tal hostlers.  There  are  but  few  colored  families  which  could 
not  afford  to  purchase  two  or  three  ewes.  The  profits  in 
that  favored  country,  though  small  at  first,  would  be  sure. 
The  increase  would  be  limited  only  by  the  perseverance  of 
the  shepherd,  and  his  command  of  land  for  pasturage,  — 
probably  the  chief  obstacle.  Let  sheep  culture,  upon  ever 
so  modest  a  scale,  generally  prevail  among  the  colored  people 
of  the  South,  and  dogs  and  thieves,  white  or  black,  would 
quickly  disappear  under  the  vigilance  of  a  self-constituted 
police,  more  effective  than  any  the  law  could  provide  ;  though 
laws  would  follow,  and  would  be  enforced. 

Question  of  Over-production  of  Wool.  —  The  question  will 
naturally  arise :  If  the  South  grows  wool  according  to  her 
capacity,  will  she  have  a  market  for  her  production  ?  To  the 
question  proposed  in  this  form,  no  other  than  a  negative  an- 
swer could  be  given.  But  the  practical  inquiry  is  this :  Is 
there  any  reason  in  a  probable  glut  of  the  market  from  an 
enlargement  of  the  area  of  production  which  should  deter  a 
Southern  farmer  from  embarking  in  wool-growing  ?  And  to 
this  question  we  unhesitatingly  answer,  No.  The  fears  of 
over-production,  which  give  the  disciples  of  Malthus  and  Ri- 
cardo  so  much  apprehension,  are  rarely  realized.  They  are 
never  realized,  except  temporarily,  in  the  great  staples  of 
manufacture.  Production  usually  limits  itself  by  its  own 
operation.  Thus,  California,  it  is  said,  has  reached  its  limit 


86  SHEEP   HUSBANDRY  IN  THE   SOUTH. 

in  wool  production  by  occupying  all  its  pasture  grounds,  or 
by  converting  them  from  the  domain  of  the  crook  to  that  of 
the  plough.  Lands  in  Vermont,  Ohio,  New  York,  and  Michi- 
gan, first  improved  by  sheep,  have  become  too  valuable  for 
growing  sheep  for  wool  mainly ;  and  these  States  are  becom- 
ing producers  of  sheep  for  mutton  and  combing  wool,  and 
rams  for  breeding.  High  production  of  wool  in  one  quarter 
of  the  world  is  usually  attended  by  diminished  production  in 
another.  While  Australia  has  increased  the  numbers  of  her 
sheep  so  wonderfully,  Germany  has  fallen  off  from  50,000,000 
in  1850  to  25,000,000  at  present,  and  France  from  32,000,000 
in  1839  to  24,000,000  in  1872.  Thus,  with  all  the  supposed 
rapidity  with  which  the  production  of  wool  has  been  increased 
throughout  the  world  of  late  years,  the  actual  consumption 
of  raw  wool,  in  the  United  Kingdom,  the  continent  of  Europe, 
and  North  America,  has  increased  at  the  rate  of  but  about 
two  per  cent  for  each  year  of  the  last  decade.  The  consump- 
tion of  clean  wool  in  the  United  States  is  set  down,  for  1875, 
at  four  and  one-third  pounds  per  head  of  our  population. 
This  is  far  short  of  what  we  ought  to  consume  for  the  re- 
quired comfort  of  our  whole  population;  and  of  what  we 
would  consume,  if  the  producing  and  consuming  power  of 
our  people  were  adequately  developed.  It  is  doubtful  if  half 
of  our  population  wear  the  woollen  underclothing  required 
for  health  and  comfort.  Persons  well  informed  in  the  trade 
in  articles  of  this  description  have  made  the  following  curi- 
ous estimate :  — 

"With  a  population  of  thirty -five  millions,  we  may  suppose  that 
there  are  eight  millions  who,  from  poverty,  mildness  of  climate,  or 
other  causes,  do  not  wear  stockings ;  leaving  twenty-seven  millions  who 
will  use  at  least  three  pairs  per  annum,  requiring  eighty-one  million 
pairs,  or  six  million  seven  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  dozen,  the  value 
of  which,  at  $3  per  dozen,  would  be  $20,250,000.  Estimating  that 
there  are  eighteen  million  males,  one  half  of  whom  will  wear  knit 
shirts  and  drawers,  and  allowing  one  shirt  and  one  pair  of  drawers  to 
each  of  the  nine  million  males  per  annum,  one  million  five  hundred 
dozen  will  be  required,  at  $12  per  dozen,  of  the  value  of  $18,000,000. 
Estimating  that  there  are  seventeen  million  females,  one  quarter  of 


SHEEP   HUSBANDRY    IN  THE  SOUTH.  87 

whom  will  wear  undervests  and  drawers,  and  allowing  only  one  gar- 
ment to  each,  three  hundred  and  seventy-five  thousand  dozen,  at  $12 
per  dozen,  of  a  total  value  of  $4,500,000,  will  be  required :  making  the 
whole  value  of  the  above  staple  goods  alone  required  for  American, 
consumption  $42,750,000." 

This  statement  illustrates  how  slight  an  increase  of  the 
consuming  power  of  our  population  is  required  to  expand  the 
wool  manufacture,  and  to  create  a  home  demand  for  the  raw 
material  such  as  never  existed. 

But  the  production  of  wool  at  the  South  will  be  so  gradual 
in  its  increase  that  it  will  be  a  long  time  before  it  has  any  sen- 
sible effect  upon  the  markets.  It  should  be  gradual,  to  be 
healthy  and  natural.  It  should  spread,  through  the  example 
of  intelligent  and  cautious  farmers.  A  sudden  and  general 
enthusiasm  for  sheep  husbandry  at  the  South  would  be  as 
undesirable  as  the  morus  multicaulis  and  silk  mania  of  1839, 
which  stopped  the  silk  culture  in  many  of  the  Southern 
States,  where  it  might  otherwise  have  been  now  successful. 
Despite  the  few  brilliant  exceptions  in  Texas,  the  bonanzas 
in  sheep  husbandry  are  as  much  fictions  of  the  imagination 
as  the  pastorals  of  the  poets.  We  do  not  tempt  our  Southern 
friends  with  the  promise  of 

"  A  fleece  more  golden  than  that  found  in  Greece, 
Which  venturous  Jason  on  his  Argo  bore 
From  the  lulled  dragon  and  Colchian  shore." 

But  we  would  allure  them  to  an  industry  more  certain  of  remu- 
neration, from  a  moderate  investment,  than  any  other  which 
can  so  easily  be  introduced  upon  their  farms,  and  —  what  is 
far  more  important  —  an  industry  which  will  be  the  precursor 
of  that  diversified  culture  through  which  alone  agriculture 
can  be  made  permanently  profitable. 

In  conclusion,  we  would  express  our  obligations  to  Mr.  Pe- 
ters of  Georgia,  Mr.  Watts  of  South  Carolina,  Mr.  Young  of 
North  Carolina,  and  Mr.  Shaeffer  of  Texas,  for  the  valuable 
statements  and  information  furnished  to  us  ;  and  to  Mr.  C.  W. 
Jenks  of  Boston,  for  the  high  intelligence  and  zeal  mani- 
fested by  him  in  the  collection  of  much  of  the  material  em- 
bodied in  this  paper. 


SHEEP   HUSBANDRY  IN  THE  SOUTH.  89 


APPENDIX. 


SHEEP  HUSBANDRY  IN  NORTH  CAROLINA. 

THE  developments  of  science  and  practical  experience  have  revolu- 
tionized public  opinion  on  many  important  subjects  during  the  present 
generation.  Man's  cupidity,  as  well  as  necessity,  has  urged  him  to 
important  changes  of  sentiment,  or,  more  properly  speaking,  has  in- 
duced him  to  develop  to  our  intelligence  many  errors  under  which  our 
fathers  labored,  and  has  opened  doors  to  new  enterprises,  through 
which  the  progress  of  this  age  has  advanced  his  material  prosperity  far 
beyond  any  period  in  his  history.  This  progress  is  not  destined  to  be 
stayed ;  but,  on  the  contrary,  as,  step  by  step,  new  developments  are 
unfolded,  new  fields  will  be  presented  for  exploration,  and  new  enter- 
prises opened  for  the  employment  of  his  energies.  Looking  back  from 
the  threshold  of  the  last  quarter  of  the  nineteenth  century  to  its  com- 
mencement, we  perceive  that  more  has  been  accomplished,  in  scientific 
and  practical  development,  than  is  recorded  in  the  history  of  combined 
centuries  of  man's  preceding  existence ;  and  yet  all  that  he  has  done 
has  been  simply  to  develop  and  turn  to  his  use  the  blessings  given  by 
his  Creator  in  the  beginning. 

During  this  period,  cotton  has  been  introduced  into  the  Southern 
States  of  our  Union,  and  become  their  great  staple,  and  made  one  of 
the  leading  productions  of  our  country ;  and,  entering  largely  into  the 
channels  of  commerce,  has  contributed  no  small  share  in  building  up 
that  interest.  The  labor  system  of  the  South  favored  its  cultivation, 
while  the  soil  and  climate  suited  its  growth  and  development.  The 
profit  attending  its  production  induced  its  cultivation  in  States  too  far 
north  of  the  line  of  latitude  suiting  the  tender  nature  of  the  plant  to 
render  it  a  reliable  and  remunerative  staple  to  the  planter.  The  recent 
change  of  labor  in  the  Southern  States  renders  it  important  that  those 
more  northern  States  which  border  on  the  cotton  belt  should  turn 
their  attention  to  productions  that  promise  better  remuneration. 

12 


90  APPENDIX. 

The  State  of  North  Carolina,  lying  on  the  northern  border  of  the 
cotton  belt  and  between  the  34°  and  37°  of  north  latitude,  possesses  a 
medium  temperature  of  climate,  free  from  the  severities  of  blighting 
cold  as  well  as  from  the  debilitating  and  parching  heat  from  equatorial 
influences.  Thus  relieved  from  the  extremes  of  climate,  North  Caro- 
lina possesses  that  equable  temperature  which  is  peculiarly  healthful 
and  invigorating  to  man,  as  well  as  to  .all  animated  nature.  This  geo- 
graphical advantage  is  enhanced  by  its  topographical  formation.  With 
a  seacoast  of  near  three  hundred  miles'  extent,  washed  by  the  waves  of 
the  Atlantic,  it  reaches  back  westward,  until  it  embraces  the  towering 
heights  of  the  Blue  Mountains.  From  the  exhaustless  fountains  of 
this  mountain  region  flow  the  thousand  streamlets  which  form  her  Ca- 
tawba  and  her  Yadkin  Rivers ;  and  from  her  table-lands,  which  gently 
soften  down  towards  the  coast,  a  thousand  other  never-failing  brooks 
and  rivulets  are  gathered  into  her  noble  Cape  Fear,  her  Neuse,  her 
Tar,  and  her  Roanoke  Rivers,  all  flowing  eastward,  watering  abun- 
dantly every  district  of  the  State,  and  emptying  their  waters  into  the 
Atlantic. 

The  mountain  portion  of  North  Carolina,  embracing  some  twenty 
counties,  possesses  a  soil  unsurpassed  for  fertility  by  any  similar  extent 
of  mountain  country  on  our  continent.  Here  the  celebrated  blue 
grass  is  an  indigenous  growth ;  and  the  mountain  sides  and  alluvial 
valleys  alike  make  the  finest  meadows  of  this  favorite  and  never-failing 
pasturage.  The  winters  here  are  short,  and  free  from  that  intensity 
which  characterizes  more  northern  latitudes.  This  mountain  portion 
of  the  State  softens  down  eastward  into  a  hill  and  dale  plateau,  embrac- 
ing as  many  more  counties ;  and  this  is  succeeded  by  a  lovely  cham- 
paign country,  extending  to  the  Atlantic  coast.  The  soil  of  this 
extensive  mountain  and  upland  country,  embracing  some  sixty  of  the 
ninety-one  counties  in  the  State,  is  varied  in  character :  a  large  propor- 
tion of  it,  having  a  rich  clay  subsoil,  yields  abundant  crops  of  the  cere- 
als and  of  cotton  and  tobacco :  and  the  balance,  having  an  admixture 
of  sand,  is  more  easily  cultivated,  and,  with  light  fertilization,  yields 
quite  as  abundant  harvests.  All  is  susceptible  of  the  highest  degree 
of  improvement ;  and  all  produces  native,  as  well  as  sown  and  culti- 
vated, grasses,  to  a  high  degree  of  perfection.  The  remaining  counties, 
embracing  the  tide-water  district  of  the  State,  have  large  districts  of 
rich  alluvial  soil,  which  have  long  been  an  Egypt  from  which  thousands 
of  our  fellow-citizens  north  of  us  have  been  provisioned.  "Within  the 
limits  of  the  State,  there  are  fifteen  hundred  miles  of  railroad  ;  travers- 
ing it  longitudinally,  latitudinally,  and  diagonally,  penetrating  its  moun- 


SHEEP   HUSBANDRY   IN   THE   SOUTH.  91 

tains  at  different  points,  and  now  vigorously  pressing  through  to  a 
connection  with  the  Mississippi  and  Ohio  valleys.  These  highways  of 
travel  and  freight  open  up  every  portion  of  it,  and  make  connections  at 
Wilmington,  Morehead  City,  and  Newbern,  on  its  own  seaboard,  and 
the  ports  of  Charleston,  S.  C.,  Norfolk,  Va.,  and  the  cities  and  markets 
of  the  North. 

This  portraiture  of  the  State  of  North  Carolina  presents  an  area  of 
45,500  square  miles,  and  embraces  all  the  varieties  of  soil  and  climate 
to  be  found  in  the  most  favored  latitudes  and  most  desirable  localities 
on  the  earth.  Nature  has  not  distributed  her  gifts  here  with  a  partial 
hand,  by  bestowing  lavishly  upon  one  section  and  withholding  to  impov- 
erishment from  another ;  but,  by  an  even  and  uniform  meting  out, 
renders  every  portion  desirable.  From  the  sharp  frost-line  of  its 
mountains  to  the  sunny  bays  and  lakes  upon  its  coast,  where  ice  is 
rarely  seen,  a  uniform,  equable  temperature  pervades  the  State. 

The  radical  change  in  labor  in  the  last  dozen  years  renders  necessary 
a  corresponding  change  in  the  system  of  agriculture,  which  must,  in 
future,  be  pursued  by  the  people.  He  who  will  present  a  proper  direc- 
tion for  the  enterprise  of  agriculturalists  will  be  their  benefactor.  Our 
ideas  on  such  matters  are  naturally  influenced  by  our  business  of  life, 
our  education,  or  other  circumstances  which  bend  the  twig  and  fix  the 
inclination  of  the  tree.  Being  sensible  of  these  influences,  the  writer 
might  feel  more  diffidence  in  presenting  sheep  husbandry  to  the  consid- 
eration of  those  interested  in  the  future  of  North  Carolina,  as  the  lead- 
ing occupation  of  its  people,  did  he  not  feel  satisfied  that  an  intelligent 
examination  of  the  subject  must  lead  the  investigating  mind  to  sustain 
his  conclusions. 

If  the  preceding  description  of  the  temperature,  topography,  and 
general  characteristics  of  the  State  be  correct,  the  reader  who  is  famil- 
iar with  sheep  husbandry  will  at  once  perceive  its  adaptation  to  that 
pursuit.  Every  one  desiring  to  inform  himself  more  particularly  in 
regard  to  the  representations  here  given  is  invited  to  direct  his  investi- 
gations with  the  view  of  scrutinizing  its  correctness  and  reliability. 

Twenty  years'  experience  in  manufacturing  the  wools  grown  in  the 
State  has  familiarized  the  writer  with  the  manner  in  which  our 
sheep  have  been  cared  for ;  and  has  convinced  him  that,  without 
great  natural  advantages,  their  utter  neglect  would  long  since  have  ex- 
terminated them  from  the  soil.  There  are  but  few  plantation?  in  the 
State  upon  which  there  was  not  to  be  found  a  flock  of  sheep,  intended 
to  be  only  sufficient  to  furnish  the  wool  necessary  to  clothe  the  family, 
and  furnish  an  occasional  mutton.  These  sheep  were  generally  the 


92  APPENDIX. 

"  native  "  breed,  rarely  improved  by  crosses  upon  foreign  blood.  As  a 
general  rule,  these  small  flocks  never  entered  into  their  owner's  esti- 
mate of  his  valuable  property,  and  they  were  never  so  treated.  In  the 
spring,  they  were  shorn  of  their  fleeces,  and  turned  outside  their  own- 
er's enclosures  to  seek  their  summer  support  in  the  forests  and  waste 
lands,  over  which  they  chose  to  roam,  and  to  run  the  gauntlet  for  life 
among  hungry  hounds  and  gaunt  curs,  almost  as  numerous  as  them- 
selves. All  that  might  escape,  and  were  able  to  find  their  homes  in  the 
fall  season,  and  would  seek  its  inhospitalities  for  the  winter,  would  be 
admitted  within  the  gates,  and  permitted  to  eke  out  a  scanty  living  in 
the  denuded  fields  and  corners  of  worm-fences ;  which  is  supple- 
mented by  a  morning  and  evening  allowance  of  corn  fodder,  which  the 
compassionate  and  appreciative  owner  allows  to  be  fed  to  them  by  a 
boy  who  has  not  yet  attained  sufficient  size  to  be  otherwise  useful. 
The  only  protection  against  the  rains  and  occasional  storms  of  winter 
afforded  to  a  majority  of  these  flocks  being  such  as  their  instincts  lead 
them  to  seek  by  hovering  on  the  sheltering  sides  of  barns  and  outbuild- 
ings that  may  be  accessible,  a  tumble-down  or  waste-house  on  a  planta- 
tion is  a  perfect  asylum  for  them.  Yet,  under  this  treatment,  the  flocks 
of  the  farmers  keep  their  numbers  full,  and  occasionally  multiply  be- 
yond their  wants.  Of  necessity,  their  fleeces  are  light  and  inferior. 
Whenever  an  effort  has  been  made  to  improve  the  stock  by  crossing 
upon  merino  or  other  approved  blood,  the  effect  is  satisfactory  and  last- 
ing. From  the  universal  custom  of  turning  the  entire  stocks  into  the 
common  "range,"  the  impression  of  a  merino,  Southdown,  or  other 
importation,  would  manifest  itself  upon  the  flocks  of  entire  neighbor- 
hoods. So  apparent  is  the  improvement  thus  made,  that,  in  purchasing 
the  surplus  brought  to  market,  there  would  be  no  difficulty  in  recogniz- 
ing the  wool  from  a  neighborhood  that  had  been  favored  by  some  enter- 
prising farmer  having  imported  from  Virginia  or  Pennsylvania  a  pair 
of  blooded  animals.  Without  any  change  in  the  mode  of  treatment, 
these  improvements  are  known  to  be  distinctly  manifest  in  neighbor- 
hoods thirty  years  after  their  introduction.  Being  able  to  withstand 
all  this  hardship  and  neglect,  and  promptly  to  respond  to  every  effort 
to  improve  their  quality  or  condition,  it  is  evident  that  there  is  in  North 
Carolina  an  adaptation  of  natural  gifts  to  their  peculiar  wants. 

In  the  tide-water  and  contiguous  counties,  where  the  influence  of 
winter  winds  from  the  mountains  is  not  felt,  "  where  the  snow  spirit 
never  comes,  and  where  spring  flings  her  flowers  into  the  lap  of  winter," 
these  generous  animals  find  a  sustaining  pasturage,  the  entire  year, 
upon  the  wire  grass  which  grows  spontaneously  through  the  otherwise 


SHEEP   HUSBANDRY   IN   THE   SOUTH.  93 

barren  pine  forests.  Being  thus  independent  of  their  owners,  they 
keep  in  uniform  good  flesh,  grow  to  better  maturity,  and  furnish  better 
fleeces,  than  in  the  upper  portion  of  the  State.  Though  here  they  know 
neither  their  "  owner,  nor  their  master's  crib,"  they  contribute  largely 
to  clothing  and  feeding  his  family. 

Standing  on  JMount  Mitchel,  on  the  western  border  of  the  State,  the 
most  elevated  point  between  the  Mississippi  River  and  the  Atlantic, 
looking  eastward  the  mind's  eye  reaches  the  waves  of  the  Atlantic,  five 
hundred  miles  distant,  and  sweeps  over  an  area  of  45,500  square  miles, 
embraced  within  the  State  lines,  watered  by  thousands  of  tributaries  to 
noble  rivers,  which  gush  from  the  mountain  battlements  stretched 
across  the  western  border  of  the  State,  whose  waters,  flowing  eastward, 
tumble  over  innumerable  falls ;  as  though  Nature  had  given  them,  not 
only  to  beautify  the  landscape,  but  to  invite  the  enterprise  of  man  to 
their  utilization.  From  the  broad  plateau  below,  a  thousand  other 
never-failing  fountains  send  forth  their  pure  waters,  which  mingle  as 
they  flow  onward  to  swell  the  grand  arteries  which  convey  them  to 
their  common  reservoir.  Through,  over,  and  across  this  grand  pros- 
pect, numerous  railways  stretch  their  lengths,  over  which  freighted 
trains  are  sweeping  to  and  fro  ;  bearing  out  the  productions,  and  bring- 
ing in  the  commerce,  of  the  country. 

Of  this  immense  territory  it  may  be  said,  there  is  not  a  square  mile 
of  soil  which  is  not  susceptible  of  being  made  to  produce  a  remunera- 
tive yield  to  tillage,  and  not  one  upon  which  would  not  ordinarily  be 
found  a  good  natural  pasturage  for  sheep ;  nor  is  there  a  square  mile  of 
it  upon  which,  when  sheep  were  introduced  and  cared  for,  would  not, 
year  by  year,  be  improved  by  their  presence  and  pasturage  upon  it. 
There  is  no  part  of  the  State  which  does  not  possess  immense  natural 
advantages  in  soil  and  climate  over  the  Southdown  hills  of  England, 
the  sterility  of  which  rendered  them  almost  uninhabitable,  until  sheep 
were  introduced  upon  them,  by  which  they  have  been  converted  into 
the  greenest  meadows  of  the  island.  In  the  mountains  and  hill  coun- 
try more  winter  provisions  would  be  required  than  in  the  balance  of 
the  State ;  but  the  shortness  of  the  season  would  not  demand  much  ex- 
pense, nor  render  the  care  of  flocks  burdensome.  In  three-fourths  of 
the  State,  no  other  winter  provision  would  be  necessary  than  the  sow- 
ing of  grasses  and  small  grain  for  their  pasturage,  and  the  providing 
of  cheap  shelters  from  occasional  seasons  of  inclemency.  The  farmers 
have  practised  the  habit  of  grazing  their  sheep  upon  their  fields  of 
small  grain  during  the  winter,  which,  when  judiciously  done,  rather 
contributes  to,  than  detracts  from,  their  yield  at  harvest.  In  the  pine 


94  APPENDIX. 

lands  and  tide-water  portion  of  the  State,  they  do  live  independent  of 
the  care  of  man,  but  would  certainly  reward  him  for  care  and  attention. 

If  climate  and  soil  are  adapted  to  sheep  husbandry,  Nature  has  fur- 
nished her  share  of  the  requisites.  Man  must  supply  the  flocks,  and, 
in  obedience  to  the  divine  command,  till  the  earth  for  their  subsistence. 
Sheep-growing  in  certain  of  the  States  of  New  England,  where  pasture 
lands  are  worth  five  or  ten  times  as  much  as  in  North  Carolina,  is  the 
staple  business  in  its  rural  districts.  Its  people  look  to  their  flocks,  as 
the  Southern  planter  does  to  his  broad  acres  of  cotton,  for  their  income. 
There  the  severities  of  a  Northern  winter  lock  up  all  Nature's  supplies, 
and  render  all  domestic  animals  dependent  upon  the  hand  of  man  for 
protection  and  food  for  one-third  of  each  year ;  yet  that  enterprising 
people  have  converted  these  States  into  a  vast  sheep-walk,  arid,  sub- 
duing all  obstacles,  have  developed  the  wool-bearing  capability  of  sheep 
to  a  degree  heretofore  unknown.  A  contrast  between  the  advan- 
tages and  disadvantages  of  New  England  and  North  Carolina  in 
regard  to  this  profitable  enterprise  is  invited,  and  the  advantages  of 
the  latter  will  be  apparent.  If,  with  the  natural  disadvantages  under 
which  they  labor,  they  have  developed  so  great  a  profit  in  this  pursuit, 
why  should  not  North  Carolina  become  animated  with  the  abounding 
presence  of  this  valuable  animal  ?  Why  should  not  her  hills  and  dales 
be  made  vocal  with  bleating  flocks,  and  the  song  of  the  shepherd 
awaken  her  echoes  as  they  float  over  her  fertile  vales  and  picturesque 
landscapes?  Why  should  our  farmers,  year  after  year,  spend  their 
hard  earnings  for  commercial  fertilizers,  and  wear  out  their  physical 
energies  in  toil  and  labor  to  make  money  enough  to  buy  more  artificial 
manures,  to  enable  them  to  grow  more  cotton,  when  the  presence  of 
one  hundred  sheep  upon  his  lands  would  enrich  five  acres  every  month 
in  the  year,  far  better  than  their  purchased  fertilizers  ;  and  would,  at  the 
same  time,  pay  them  in  wool  and  mutton  a  better  per  cent  upon  their 
value  than  their  cotton  does  upon  their  labor  and  expense  ? 

The  changed  circumstances  of  the  people  of  North  Carolina  calls 
for  a  change  in  their  agriculture.  Millions  of  wealth  have  been  real- 
ized in  less  favored  countries  by  the  growth  of  sheep ;  and  it  is  an 
enterprise  worthy  the  investigation  of  her  people.  This  article  is  not 
written  with  the  view  of  presenting  the  profits  of  husbandry,  or  of  con- 
trasting it  with  the  present  agricultural  pursuits  of  her  people ;  but  to 
show  the  adaptation  of  the  State  to  its  successful  pursuit,  and  to  call 
attention  to  its  natural  advantages  over  countries  where  it  is  profitably 
pursued.  It  is  hoped  that  the  intelligent  people  of  the  State  will  in- 
vestigate the  subject,  and  that  those  engaged  in  it  elsewhere  may  be 


SHEEP  HUSBANDRY  IN  THE   SOUTH.  95 

induced  to  direct  their  attention  and  inquiries  to  the  State ;  and  there 
is  no  doubt  of  the  facts  presented  being  found  to  be  as  stated. 

The  profits  of  sheep  husbandry  are  not  now,  as  heretofore,  depend- 
ent mainly  upon  the  fleeces ;  but  the  discoveries  of  science  in  this,  our 
enlightened  day,  enable  the  growers  to  offer  their  mutton  in  the  mar- 
kets of  Europe  as  sweet  and  as  fresh  as  it  is  found  in  our  own  city 
shambles. 

JOHN  A.  YOUNG. 
CHARLOTTE,  N.  C.,  Jan.  8, 1878. 


MARTIN'S  DEPOT,  LAURENS  COUNTY, 

SOUTH  CAROLINA,  Dec.  22,  1877. 
JOHN  L.  HATES,  Esq.,  Secretary  of  the 

National  Association  of  Wool  Manufacturers,  Boston. 

DEAR  SIR,  —  I  am  requested  by  my  friend,  Governor  Hampton,  to 
send  you  some  details  of  my  experience  in  sheep  husbandry,  in  which 
I  have  all  my  life  been  engaged,  in  this  State,  Georgia,  and  Texas. 
From  my  early  manhood,  I  have  personally  known,  and  visited  in  their 
homes,  the  most  intelligent  wool-growers  and  sheep-breeders  of  the 
North  and  South,  —  such  men  as  George  Campbell  and  others,  of 
New  England;  and  Richard  Peters  and  others,  of  the  South.  Dr. 
Randall,  of  Cortland  Village,  N.  Y.,  was  for  thirty  years  my  friend, 
and  an  authority  to  whom  I  always  had  recourse ;  and  whose  most 
valuable  work,  "  Sheep  Husbandry  at  the  South,"  was  written  at  the 
special  request  of  the  late  Governor  Allston,  of  this  State,  to  encourage 
wool-growing  in  South  Carolina.  From  all  sources,  at  home  and 
abroad,  I  have  sought  information,  and  have  obtained  the  best  exam- 
ples of  the  various  breeds.  In  fact,  sheep  husbandry  has  been  the  one 
occupation  I  have  preferred  above  all  others ;  and  I  have  no  hesitation 
whatever,  after  long  experience,  in  affirming  it,  as  my  fixed  belief,  that 
it  might  be  made  the  most  valuable  industry  of  the  South ;  and  for  the 
successful  pursuit  of  which,  in  all  its  varieties,  this  section  has  more 
facilities  than  any  other  portion  of  our  country.  I  will  note  down 
facts  in  my  experience,  as  they  occur  to  me ;  and  you  can  arrange  and 
use  them  as  you  choose. 

We  are  not  far  from  the  central  portions  of  the  State. 

The  country  is  a  rolling  upland,  with  a  light-gray  soil  and  heavy 
clay  subsoil. 

The  prevailing  grasses  are  the  crab  and  Bermuda,  and  wild  clover. 


96  APPENDIX. 

The  breeds  of  sheep  I  have  had  and  tested  are  the  common  native ; 
Bakewell,  or  New  Leicester;  New  Oxfordshire;  South  Downs; 
French  and  Spanish  merinos ;  and  the  African  broad-tails. 

With  me,  the  Spanish  merinos  have  proved  the  most  profitable ;  the 
first  of  which  I  had  from  the  flocks  of  Dr.  Randall. 

I  *have  crossed  the  merino  with  nearly  all  the  above-named  breeds. 

I  am  inclined  to  think  that  good  native  ewes  make  the  best  cross 
with  the  merino,  and  make  a  more  salable  sheep  than  any  of  the 
above-named  full-bloods. 

I  am  now  breeding  the  merino  and  broad-tailed. 

If  I  were  raising  wool  as  the  primary  consideration,  I  would  by  all 
means  raise  the  merino.  They  do  not  mature  so  early  as  the  other 
breeds  ;  but,  when  matured,  make  as  good  mutton  as  any  breed  I  have 
ever  raised.  But,  if  the  principal  object  should  be  to  raise  mutton  for 
the  markets,  I  would  certainly  recommend  the  African  broad-tailed 
sheep,  because  they  mature  earlier ;  but,  in  my  husbandry,  I  make  the 
wool  the  first,  the  mutton  the  secondary,  consideration.  But,  were 
the  question  one  of  long-combing  wool  for  this  locality,  I  would  cross 
the  Cotswold  ewe  with  the  African  broad-tail  ram,  for  all  the  range 
of  country  here,  this  side  the  Blue  Ridge. 

The  annual  cost  of  keeping  my  sheep,  I  charge  up  at  one  dollar  per 
head.  The  actual  cost  I  have  found  to  be  not  over  sixty  cents  per 
head. 

As  to  the  per  cent  of  profit  my  sheep  pay :  if  they  are  full-blooded, 
they  will  average  not  far  from  ten  dollars ;  and,  making  that,  they  give 
about  twenty  per  cent.,  allowing  the  lambs  to  pay  expenses ;  but,  if 
they  are  only  half-breeds,  they  will  not  average  more  than  a  dollar 
and  a  half  per  fleece. 

My  average  annual  clip  of  unwashed  wool,  per  sheep,  from  full- 
blood  merinos,  is  seven  pounds :  the  average  price  of  which  last 
season  was  twenty-two  cents ;  this  season,  twenty-eight,  net,  to  me 
here. 

I  think  the  cost  per  pound  of  wool  gives  it  to  you  as  net  gain  ;  for 
it  must  be  a  very  poor  and  very  badly  managed  flock  in  which  the 
lambs  and  manure  will  not  pay  all  expenses, 

The  average  number  of  my  lambs  raised  is,  from  my  merinos,  about 
eighty  per  cent.  Compared  with  the  ewes  kept,  they  are  not,  as  a  rule, 
as  good  nurses  as  most  of  the  other  breeds ;  some  of  which  will  rear 
nearly  one  hundred  per  cent  of  their  lambs.  I  have  always  sold  my 
lambs  for  herding,  stock  sheep,  &c.,  —  not  to  the  butcher. 

Our  common  sheep   can  be  had  here  for  two  dollars  per  head; 


SHEEP   HUSBANDRY   IN   THE   SOUTH.  97 

merinos,  from  ten  to  twenty.  The  price  in  market  here  for  grown 
mutton  sheep  would  be  from  four  to  five  dollars. 

My  pasture  has  been  broom  sedge  and  Japan  clover  (Lespedizea 
striata),  until  after  harvest ;  then  we  give  them  the  run  of  the  grain 
fields.  For  winter  pasturage,  I  usually  sow  rye  lots  for  the  ewes  and 
lambs,  and  give  all  the  flock  the  run  of  oats  sown  in  August  and  Sep- 
tember ;  also,  allow  them  the  range  of  the  corn-field  and  the  cotton- 
fields.  As  a  mixed  food,  cotton -seed  is  wholesome,  economical,  and 
profitable.  My  sheep  are  very  fond  of  it :  after  feeding  on  green  bar- 
ley all  day,  they  will  eat  cotton-seed  with  great  relish.  Some  feed  is 
needed  in  this  section  for  three  months,  as  there  are  little  cultivated 
grasses ;  with  herdsgrass  and  clover  cultivated,  much  less  time  for 
feeding  would  be  needed. 

Sheep  are  usually  very  healthy  in  this  section  :  there  are  no  epi- 
demics nor  prevailing  complaints  here  among  them. 

The  main  obstacles  to  the  industry  here  are  dogs,  thieving  negroes, 
indolence,  and  ignorance.  The  presence  of  a  shepherd  and  the  Span- 
ish sheep-dog  will  remedy  the  first ;  and  education,  the  latter. 

We  utilize  the  manure  from  the  sheep,  —  housing  them  in  winter, 
and  littering  the  stalls  frequently, —  throwing  it  broadcast  for  ruta- 
bagas, in  July  or  August,  or  in  drills,  as  the  case  may  be.  In  summer, 
I  use  John  H.  Ruchman's  portable  fence,  —  the  best  iron  wire ;  and 
keep  at  the  rate  of  a  thousand  sheep  to  the  acre  a  week :  the  value 
of  which  I  regard  as  equal  to  about  four  hundred  pounds  of  guano, 
the  first  year ;  and  its  effects  are  perceptible  for  several  years.  My 
belief,  from  careful  experimenting,  is,  that  fifty-two  acres  of  land  can 
be  so  well  fertilized  in  twelve  months,  with  one  thousand  sheep,  as  to 
be  rich  soil  for  five  years  following.  The  effects  of  such  manuring  are 
wonderful. 

The  sheep  are  great  helps  to  the  farmer  in  eradicating  useless 
weeds,  such  as  the  cockle-brier,  which  they  eat  with  avidity,  either  dry 
or -green.  In  fact,  there  are  few  plants  with  us  they  will  not  eat. 

I  think  all  varieties  of  sheep  can  be  successfully  and  profitably  raised 
in  our  State.  On  the  rich  bottom  lands  of  the  coast,  the  African 
broad-tails,  —  or  a  cross,  as  I  have  suggested,  with  the  Cotswold,  — 
which  would  give  a  variety  that  would  thrive  in  any  climate  South. 

In  the  middle  district,  near  the  lands  under  rich  cultivation,  the 
Bakewells  and  other  varieties  of  heavy  sheep  for  mutton.  In  the 
section  where  I  am,  and  up  to  the  line  of  the  Blue  Ridge,  the  merinos, 
and,  on  the  Blue  Ridge  itself,  the  merino ;  and  I  should  also  strongly 
recommend  the  Cheviot,  so  successful  in  the  districts  of  England  and 
Scotland  of  similar  altitude  and  climate. 


98  APPENDIX. 

And  here,  in  closing,  let  me  say,  in  view  of  some  of  the  industrial 
wants  of  the  country,  I  think  this  last  section  of  our  State,  the  Blue 
Ridge  Mountains,  can,  with  moderate  care  and  expense,  most  success- 
fully furnish  all  the  facilities  needed  for  the  best  combing-wools,  and 
the  alpaca  and  Angora  goat.  In  fact,  I  have  no  doubt  on  this  point. 
Even  here,  seventy-five  miles  from  the  mountains,  I  have  for  six  years 
grown  most  successfully  the  Angora  goat,  whose  flesh  I  regard  as 
superior  to  any  mutton ;  and  whose  fleece,  properly  handled,  could 
there  be  made  more  profitable  than  any  wool-growing.  This  I  can 
say  from  actual,  careful  experience  with  the  Angoras  which  are  of  Asia 
Minor  stock,  meeting  here  few  obstacles  to  their  profitable  breeding ; 
and  which,  in  the  Blue  Ridge  just  beyond  me,  would  find  an  exact 
counterpoint  of  their  native  soil  and  climate.  Aside  from  their  flesh 
and  wool,  there  is  another  advantage  they  offer,  which  in  the  moun- 
tains beyond  would  be  most  valuable.  In  a  cross  I  have  made  with 
a  pure  Angora  buck  and  a  Maltese  ewe-goat,  I  have  raised  a  ewe-goat 
that  will  give  four  quarts  per  day  of  as  good  milk  as  any  cow  on  my 
plantation.  The  feed  of  one  of  my  cows  will  keep  twelve  goats.  My 
cows  must  have  certain  food,  or  they  will  not  thrive.  My  goats  will 
eat  any  thing  almost,  and  do  well ;  and  with  this  advantage,  also,  that 
their  milk  and  butter  are  not  in  any  way  affected  by  their  diet. 

It  is  not,  therefore,  at  all  an  open  question  with  me,  after  years  of  prac- 
tical experience,  whether  the  Angora,  alpaca,  and  kindred  races  of  the 
goat  tribes  would  thrive  in  our  Blue  Ridge.  They  would  be  more 
profitable  in  that  locality  than  any  other  branch  of  husbandry. 

If  the  present  status  of  the  wool-growing  industry  can  be  main- 
tained, we  can,  in  my  judgment,  grow  all  the  varieties  and  product 
needed  for  home  consumption,  from  the  cheapest  carpet-wools  to  those 
needed  for  our  extra-fine  broadcloths,  imitation  cashmeres,  or  the  cloths 
for  piano-manufacture  consumption. 

I  have  now  on  my  table  a  Silesian  wool,  measuring,  say,  eighteen 
hundred  hairs  to  the  inch,  and  which  cost  the  consumer  here  one  dollar 
fifty  cents,  in  gold,  per  pound.  With  none  of  that  ridiculously  extreme 
care  which  the  growers  of  Electoral  wool  exercise  in  their  flocks, 
Mark  Cockerell,  of  Tennessee  (near  Nashville),  has  raised  Saxony 
wools  of  a  fineness  of  over  two  thousand  hairs  to  the  inch,  and  could  sell 
it  at  a  handsome  profit  at  one  dollar  per  pound.  In  fact,  Mr.  Cockerell 
claims  there  is  more  margin  of  profit  in  it  than  in  the  growth  of  a 
mere  ordinary  wool. 

Our  country's  enterprise,  demand,  climate,  soils,  and  constantly  im- 
proving animals,  —  if  present  encouragement  in  wool-growing  is  not 


SHEEP   HUSBANDRY   IN  THE   SOUTH.  99 

interfered  with  in  any  way,  —  can  supply  any  call  that  can  be  made 
upon  it ;  and,  from  my  knowledge  of  the  South  and  its  resources,  I 
believe  no  part  of  our  country  can  furnish  so  many  facilities  in  this 
direction,  —  and  no  one  section  more  than  my  native  State  of  South 
Carolina. 

J.  WASH  WATTS. 


EXECUTIVE  CHAMBER,  COLUMBIA,  S.  C.,  Dec.  24,  1877. 

I  fully  concur  with  the  views  expressed  by  Colonel  Watts  in  the 
within  paper.  He  is  a  gentleman  of  great  experience,  intelligence, 
and  integrity.  I  doubt  if  he  has  his  superior  as  a  shepherd  in  the 
South. 

I  heartily  commend  his  sentiments,  as  hereby  expressed,  to  all  who 
are  interested  in  wool-growing  and  its  manufactures ;  which  industries 
I  believe  to  be  most  vitally  connected  with  the  future  development 
and  prosperity  of  the  South. 

WADE  HAMPTON. 


ATLANTA,  GA.,  Jan.  1,  1878. 
JOHN  L.  HAYES,  Esq.,  Secretary  of  the 

National  Association  of  Wool  Manufacturers,  Boston,  Mass. 

SIR,  —  Hon.  Alex.  H.  Stephens  of  this  State  has  expressed  a 
wish  that  I  furnish  you  with  facts  as  to  the  facilities  the  State  of 
Georgia  can  offer  in  sheep  husbandry,  growing  out  of  my  thirty  years' 
experience  in  that  industry  here. 

If  you  will  bear  in  mind  that  we  can  grow  oranges  in  the  gardens  in 
the  southern  part  of  the  State  while  snow  lies  on  the  highlands,  and 
the  mercury  may  be  at  zero  on  the  northern  borders,  you  can  see 
that  the  diversity  of  soil  and  climate  associated  with  such  extremes 
would  give  great  variety  to  the  products  of  the  State. 

Nature  has  given  us  three  marked  divisions :  middle,  lower,  and 
upper  Georgia ;  the  altitude  rising  with  the  latitude.  Each  of  these 
sections  has  its  own  special  advantage  for  wool-growing,  and  it  can  be 
profitably  pursued  in  either  section. 

I  will  begin  with  the  lower  part  of  the  State,  across  the  entire  width 
of  which  there  is  a  belt  of  country  of  an  extent  northward  from  the 
coast  and  the  Florida  line,  say,  from  100  to  150  miles.  It  is  the 
land  of  the  long-leaf  pine  and  the* wire  grass.  Flocks  of  native  sheep, 


100  APPENDIX. 

as  high  as  3,500  in  number,  are  found  here  and  there  scattered  over 
the  surface ;  receiving  but  little  care  or  attention,  except  at  the  annual 
gathering  for  shearing  and  marking.  Very  little  can  be  said  either  for 
the  quantity  or  quality  of  the  wool  per  head  raised  here.  I  am  aware 
that  it  has  been  claimed  for  this  section  that  its  present  advantages  are 
as  great  for  large  flocks  as  the  ranges  in  Texas  and  California.  I  do 
not  subscribe  to  this  opinion.  The  pasturage  of  this  section,  called 
wire  grass,  affords  fine  grazing  for  sheep  in  the  spring ;  but,  for  per- 
manent and  continuous  food,  it  cannot  be  relied  on.  A  fair  experiment 
in  sheep-raising,  uniting  good  attention,  selection,  and  crossing,  with  a 
determination  to  secure  the  best  development  in  frame  and  fleece,  has 
not  been  made  in  this  section  for  many  years.  If  it  were  properly 
attempted,  by  combining  Bermuda  with  the  wire  grass  for  spring  and 
summer  pasture,  and  red  winter  oats  for  one  or  two  months  in  winter, 
for  the  ewes  and  lambs,  I  think  the  results  would  prove  of  the  most 
satisfactory  and  profitable  character. 

In  the  middle  portion  of  the  State,  the  Bermuda  grass  prevails ;  and, 
under  the  cotton  system  of  culture,  it  was  the  dread  and  bane  of  the 
planter :  but  now,  for  its  nutritious  qualities  and  compactness  of  sod 
it  is  considered  by  our  people  as  valuable  and  as  reliable  as  any  grass, 
not  excepting  the  Kentucky  blue  grass.  It  is  undoubtedly  the  sacred, 
or  "  doub,"  grass  of  the  Hindoos.  It  will  afford  sheep  the  very  best 
pasturage  for  six  months  of  the  year,  in  this  section  of  the  State :  and, 
if  managed  as  on  the  pastures  in  Kentucky,  for  the  entire  year. 

In  Putnam,  Hancock,  Wilkes,  and  adjoining  counties  (formerly  the 
el  dorado  cotton  country  of  Georgia),  where  the  Bermuda  has  taken 
possession,  there  is  a  future  for  successful  sheep  husbandry ;  providing, 
of  course,  the  supervision  be  intelligent,  and  the  business  properly  con- 
ducted, and  combined  with  cotton  culture.  The  result  must  prove 
highly  remunerative,  —  far  surpassing  any  thing  in  the  past  history  of 
this  industry  in  New  England  or  the  Middle  States. 

My  own  experience  has  been,  to  a  great  extent,  in  North  or  upper 
Georgia,  in  Gordon  County.  The  country  is  hill  and  valley,  the  land 
changing  very  rapidly ;  the  pasturage,  sedge,  crab,  and  other  native 
grasses.  Of  the  cultivated,  the  orchard  grass,  red  and  white  clover,  on 
upland,  and  red  top,  on  low  land,  succeed  admirably.  Lucerne  and 
German  millet  are  never-failing  sources  of  an  ample  supply  of  hay. 
The  former  affords  from  four  to  five  cuttings  in  a  season.  Red,  rust- 
proof oats  —  a  reliable  winter  variety,  if  sown  in  September  —  can  be 
pastured  during  the  winter  and  early  spring,  and  then  yield  a  full  crop 
of  grain.  The  same  may  be  said  of  barley,  rye,  and  wheat. 


SHEEP   HUSBANDRY   IN   THE   SOUTH.  101 

The  breeds  I  have  tested  are  the  Spanish  and  French  merinos, 
South  Down,  Oxfordshire  Down,  Leicester,  Asiatic  broad  tail,  or 
Tunisian,  improved  Kentucky  Cotswold,  and  native  sheep.  I  have 
also  crossed  nearly  all  of  these  varieties.  Those  between  the  Spanish 
merinos  and  native,  and  the  Cotswold  and  native,  have  proved  most 
profitable.  My  present  varieties  are  the  thorough-bred  merinos  and 
the  Cotswold,  and  crosses  between  these  two. 

For  general  purposes  of  wool  and  mutton,  I  recommend  most  decid- 
edly the  cross  from  native  ewes  and  Spanish  merino  bucks ;  the  pro- 
geny showing  marked  improvement,  having  constitution,  fattening 
properties,  thriftiness,  and  a  close,  compact  fleece. 

For  long-combing  wools,  the  best  combination  flock  can  be  built  up 
on  the  natives  as  a  basis ;  using  the  Spanish  merino  bucks  for  the  first 
cross,  and  then  the  Cotswold  to  give  more  size  and  longer  staple.  If 
the  winters  are  mild,  my  flocks  require  feeding  about  thirty  days ;  if 
cold  and  wet,  twice  that  time.  My  merino  sheep  are  very  healthy. 
They  have  had  trouble  with  the  sheep  bot-fly ;  but  I  have  found  a  lib- 
eral use  of  tar  a  perfect  preventive.  By  another  winter,  a  proper  dog 
law  will  be  enacted,  now  guaranteed  to  us  in  the  new  constitution. 

In  all  well-situated  and  well-managed  flocks,  the  increase  and  man- 
ure will  amply  repay  all  expenses,  and  leave  the  fleece  clear  profit. 
The  fleeces  of  my  flocks,  not  housed  at  night,  will  give  an  average  of 
seven  pounds  of  wool  to  the  head. 

The  future  history  of  the  sheep  husbandry  of  this  State,  if  intelli- 
gently pursued  in  accordance  with  its  natural  divisions,  will  show  three 
distinct  systems :  that  of  Northern  Georgia  will  somewhat  resemble 
the  industry  in  Ohio,  Pennsylvania,  New  York,  and  New  England ; 
that  of  the  middle  of  the  State,  Kentucky ;  and  that  of  the  southern 
portion  (with  shepherds  and  dogs),  Texas,  Colorado,  and  California. 

In  this  connection,  I  may  say  a  few  words  about  the  Angora  goat, 
very  improperly  termed  "  Cashmere."  I  have  owned  these  animals 
from  six  distinct  importations ;  those  brought  over  by  Dr.  J.  B. 
Davis,  in  1848,  proving  to  be  superior  in  many  respects  to  any  of  the 
more  recent  importations.  One  of  the  most  valuable,  interesting,  and 
remarkable  traits  of  the  Angoras  is  the  rapidity  with  which  fleece- 
bearing  goats  can  be  obtained  by  using  thorough-bred  bucks  to  cross  on 
the  common  short-haired  ewe-goats  of  the  country.  The  second  cross 
produces  a  goat  with  a  skin  valued  for  rugs,  mats,  and  gloves.  The 
fifth  cross,  (known  by  many  breeders  as  "  full  blood  ")  will  yield  a  fleece 
not  inferior  to  much  of  the  "mohair"  imported  from  Asia.  This  fifth 
cross  can  be  readily  obtained  in  five  or  six  years.  Thorough-bred 


102  APPENDIX. 

bucks  should  always  be  used,  because  the  progeny  of  the  "  full  blood  " 
bucks  vary  greatly,  and  the  upward  progress  is  by  no  means  satisfac- 
tory. The  Angora  is  a  hardy,  industrious,  and  self-sustaining  animal, 
and  can  be  classed  as  herbivorous.  Being  active  and  vigorous,  they 
roam  over  wide  ranges  of  country,  giving  value  to  worthless  vegetation 
refused  by  most  other  animals ;  and  will  feed  and  fatten  at  double  the 
distance  from  water  that  sheep  can,  as  they  travel  faster  and  endure 
more.  I  have  for  twenty  years  bred  them  largely,  and  have  observed 
the  following  rules  in  my  selection  of  stock  bucks :  — 

In  pedigree.  —  Dating  back  to  Asiatic  importation. 

In  fleece.  —  Weight  and  length  of  the  long,  silky,  ringletted,  white 

fleece,  and  its  freedom  from  kemp,  and  mane  on  the  back  and 

neck. 
In  frame.  —  Size  and  vigor,  long  pendent  ears,  and  upright  spiral  horns. 

If  that  point  has  not  already  been  reached,  I  believe  it  soon  will  be, 
when  (as  in  the  history  of  merino  sheep)  finer  specimens  of  the  Angora, 
American  bred,  may  be  seen  here  than  can  be  found  in  their  haunts 
in  Asia  Minor. 

I  have  had  great  success  with  the  Angoras,  and  regard  them  as  one 
of  the  most  valuable  acquisitions  to  the  resources  of  our  husbandry. 
They  have  yielded  me  more  substantial  pecuniary  profit  than  any  other 
branch  of  my  extended  stock  investments.  In  1861,  I  sent  out  to 
William  M.  Landrum,  of  California,  the  first  Angoras  that  went  there ; 
where  they  have  laid  the  foundation  of  what,  I  am  confident,  will  be  a 
very  extensive  and  profitable  husbandry.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that 
in  the  range  of  the  Blue  Ridge,  extending  from  Alabama  to  Virginia 
they  would  find  all  the  requirements  of  their  nature,  utilize  a  vast 
country,  and  prove  a  source  of  great  benefit  and  profit  to  all  inter- 
ested. In  reference  to  the  whole  matter  of  sheep  husbandry  at  the 
South,  after  a  long  experience,  in  which  neither  labor,  care,  nor  expense 
has  been  spared  by  me,  I  may  say,  with  safety,  I  know  of  no  invest- 
ment so  likely  to  yield  constant  and  profitable  returns  to  the  farmer 
and  certainly  none  so  valuable  to  the  acres  he  occupies.  I  think  the 
State  of  Georgia,  from  its  varied  climate,  soil,  and  surface,  offers  un- 
equalled facilities  for  this  industry.  We  shall  need  with  this,  the 
paternal  care  of  the  State  and  National  governments,  for  its  growth 
and  permanence.  Local  laws  for  the  protection  of  our  flocks  from  man 
and  beast  should  be  promptly  enacted ;  while  the  general  government 
should  by  no  unkindly  legislation  disturb  existing  advantages,  retard 
our  growing  progress,  or  throw  any  obstacle  in  our  way.  And  I  may 


SHEEP   HUSBANDRY  IN    THE  SOUTH.  103 

here  say,  that  I  learn  with  great  surprise  and  regret,  that  an  effort 
will  probably  be  made  in  Congress,  this  winter,  to  reduce  the  duties  on 
wool,  or  even  to  give  us  free  wool  altogether.  I  greatly  deprecate  all 
such  legislative  action.  Nothing  could  be  more  impolitic,  or  disastrous 
to  the  sheep  husbandry  of  this  country.  No  section  of  the  Union  —  not 
even  California  and  Texas,  with  all  their  great  natural  facilities  —  could 
grow  wool  against  the  cheap  labor  and  the  inexpensive  ranges  of  Brazil 
and  Australia ;  to  say  nothing  of  our  European  competitors,  the  influx 
of  whose  combing  wools  would  keep,  for  many  generations,  the  fair 
Blue  Ridge  of  the  South  without  sheep-walks ;  though  it  is  by  nature 
one  of  the  most  favored  spots  in  America  for  this  class  of  wools,  and 
which  also  are  now  so  much  in  demand,  at  home  and  abroad,  for  the 
great  and  growing  worsted  industries  of  the  world. 

To  us  of  the  South,  especially  (who  are  just  waking  up  to  the  im- 
portance and  value  every  way,  of  an  intelligent  sheep  husbandry,  as 
one  of  the  most  reliable  and  efficient  means  to  aid  us  in  the  restoration 
of  our  shattered  fortunes),  any  such  unkindly  legislation  would  be 
instantly  and  totally  destructive.  The  capital  of  our  farmers,  now 
invested  to  a  limited  extent  hopefully  and  profitably  in  wool-growing, 
their  calculations  and  expectations  being  based  on  the  permanence  of 
existing  legislation,  would  be  annihilated ;  while  the  present  encourag- 
ing outlook  for  investment  in  this  industry,  from  outside  capitalists, 
would  be  at  once  shrouded  in  gloom  and  indefinitely  postponed. 

Respectfully  yours, 

RICHARD  PETERS. 


MERINO  RANCHE,  MORGAN  MILLS,  ERATH  Co., 

TEXAS,  Nor.  13,  1877. 
Hon.  JOHN  L.  HATES,  Secretary  of  the 

National  Association  of  Wool  Manufacturers,  Boston. 

SIR,  —  I  trust  you  will  pardon  the  liberty  I  take  in  addressing  you. 
My  excuse  must  be  the  obligation  I  am  under,  to  yourself  and  the  Asso- 
ciation you  represent,  for  many  favors  in  the  past ;  and,  very  recently, 
for  the  pleasure  and  profit  afforded  me  by  the  perusal,  in  the  July  and 
September  issue  of  "  The  Bulletin,"  of  your  lecture  on  "  Wool  Pro- 
duction and  Sheep  Husbandry." 

My  only  regret  in  reading  it  has  been  that  your  audience  had  not 
been  in  Texas  rather  than  Maine ;  and  here  (will  you  allow  me  to  say  ?) 
you  are,  in  my  judgment, 'doing  the  joint  interests  of  wool-growing 


104  APPENDIX. 

and  wool-manufacture  great  service,  by  the  utterance  of  such  senti- 
ments as  are  contained  in  the  paper  referred  to  ;  and,  while  thus  em- 
ployed, I  firmly  believe  you  are  engaged  in  an  educational  effort 
second  to  none  in  importance  in  our  country. 

I  have  entered  upon  the  business  of  sheep  husbandry  in  this  section, 
not  alone  for  the  purpose  of  money-making,  but  also  in  the  faith  that  I 
can,  in  this  avocation,  render  good  service  to  my  country  in  many  ways. 
The  field  here  is  a  wide  and  important  one.  I  believe  it  is  destined  to 
be  the  theatre  of  most  important  developments  in  sheep  husbandry. 
The  facilities,  in  many  directions,  for  the  successful  solution  of  hitherto 
unsolved  problems  in  this  industry,  are  unsurpassed  anywhere ;  and 
I  think,  ten  years  from  now  Texas  wool  will  rank  in  all  respects  with 
the  best  of  the  world. 

To  accomplish  this  will  require  effort.  I  do  not  hesitate  to  say  to 
our  wool-growers  here,  that  the  intelligent  wool-manufacturers  of  New 
England  will  watch  with  much  interest  the  future  of  this  great  terri- 
tory ;  and  that  the  knowledge  of  that  fact,  and  the  sympathy  and  co- 
operation it  insures,  should  nerve  them  not  only  to  grow  the  most  in 
bulk,  but  the  best  in  quality,  of  any  wools  on  the  continent. 

I  have  recently  brought  out  here  one  hundred  head  of  merino  bucks, 
from  the  celebrated  flock  of  George  Campbell,  Esq.,  of  West  West- 
minster, Vermont,  and  intend  them  as  but  the  forerunners  of  a  system 
of  sheep  husbandry  unexcelled  anywhere.  If  I  can  be  successful,  I 
think  I  may  be  useful,  in  no  small  degree,  in  more  firmly  cementing  the 
bonds  of  our  common  country.  For,  while  it  may  seem  a  strange 
thought  to  many,  I  have  the  impression,  that  no  one  influence  in  the 
industries  of  the  Union  can  be  made  more  mighty  for  good  in  a  moral, 
industrial,  and  political  sense,  than  an  intelligent,  harmonious  co-oper- 
ation of  the  interests  represented  by  the  wool-growers  and  wool-manu- 
facturers of  these  United  States. 

Very  respectfully  yours, 

CHARLES  N.  JENKS. 


SHEEP  HUSBANDRY  IN  THE  SOUTH.  105 


EXTRACT    FROM    FORTHCOMING    REPORT 


OF   THE 


COMMISSIONER  OF  AGRICULTURE  OF  TENNESSEE. 


EAST    TENNESSEE    FOR   SHEEP. 

THE  climate  embraced  within  the  limits  of  Tennessee  is  peculiar,  in 
the  fact  that  it  is  greatly  modified  by  reason  of  mountain  elevations, 
and  is  not  what  latitude  alone  would  determine.  Take  the  tops  of  the 
Unaka  Mountains  on  the  east,  and,  throughout  the  hottest  summer 
months,  the  average  temperature  on  Roane  mountain  does  not  exceed 
fifty-four  degrees.  In  the  valley  of  East  Tennessee,  we  find  the  cli- 
mate not  so  much  modified  by  elevation  as  by  the  direction  of  the 
winds  which  rush  up  the  valleys  from  the  south-west,  laden  with  a 
fructifying  moisture,  and  producing  a  highly  genial,  productive,  and 
healthy  climate.  The  mean  temperature  here  in  summer  is  not  far 
from  seventy-four  degrees. 

Take  these  two  divisions  of  the  State,  lying  side  by  side,  and  the 
sheep  will  present  great  constitutional  differences.  The  Cotswold, 
Leicester,  Southdown,  nor  any  heavy  breeds,  would  not  do  well  upon 
the  admirable  grazing  grounds  found  upon  the  bald  places  on  the 
mountain  tops ;  but  the  Merino,  the  Cheviot,  and  the  native  mountain 
breeds  would  find  a  home  entirely  congenial  to  their  constitution  and 
habits.  The  natives  found  on  these  mountain  heights  are .  as  fleet  as 
the  deer,  and  as  healthy.  The  wool  is  white,  soft,  firm,  lustrous,  and 
true ;  and  the  sheep  show  a  beautiful  adaptation  to  the  locality  which 
they  occupy.  It  is  said,  by  those  experienced  in  sheep-raising  on  these 
mountains,  that  the  higher  the  grazing  grounds  the  better  the  wool. 
On  the  other  hand,  carcasses  increase  in  size  as  the  grazing  grounds 
approach  the  valley,  until  the  largest  size  of  carcass  is  met  with  in  the 
many  long,  straight,  and  beautiful  valleys  that  characterize  the  great 
valley  of  East  Tennessee. 

U 


106  APPENDIX. 

It  may  be  well  to  mention  here,  that  the  grasses  which  flourish  upon 
the  slopes  and  tops  of  the  Unaka  Mountains  are  exceedingly  luxuriant 
and  nutritious,  and  form  a  thick  mat  all  over  the  surface.  Blue  grass, 
herds  grass,  white  clover,  mountain  meadow,  Randall  grass,  and  many 
wild  but  valuable  kinds,  are  so  intermixed  as  to  supply  constant  grazing 
throughout  the  summer  months.  But  these  grasses  are  confined  to  the 
soils  of  Metamorphic  origin.  The  Sandstone  Mountains  are  naked  and 
bare,  producing  only  greenish  briars,  lichens,  mosses,  and  ferns. 

Though  cool,  the  climate  of  these  mountains  is  exceedingly  moist. 
For  fully  half  the  time  in  summer,  the  tops  are  wrapped  in  cloud  and 
mist ;  and  rains  are  remarkably  frequent  in  summer,  and  snows  in 
winter.  The  frequent  rains  keep  the  grasses  in  a  growing  condition, 
and  an  equal  acreage  of  pasture  upon  the  rich,  black,  feldspathic  soils 
of  the  mountain  will  probably  supply  double  the  grazing  that  it  would 
in  the  valleys  below.  In  no  part  of  the  celebrated  blue-grass  region 
of  Kentucky  is  the  sod  better  or  thicker  than  upon  the  balds  of  some 
of  these  mountains.  For  wool-producing  sheep,  this  region  has  no 
superior  in  this  or  any  other  country,  if  they  could  be  provided  with 
suitable  protection  against  the  chilling  rains.  The  cold  blasts  of  win- 
ter may  be  averted  by  the  sheltering  coves.  The  tropical  heats  of  the 
valley  in  summer  are  unknown  upon  these  airy  heights. 

CUMBERLAND    MOUNTAIN   FOR    SHEEP. 

The  Cumberland  table-land  is  two  thousand  feet  above  tide-water, 
with  a  dry  sandstone  soil,  and  an  exceedingly  cool  and  pleasant  climate 
in  summer,  the  mean  temperature  being  about  seventy-one  degrees. 
The  air  is  dry  and  bracing.  During  the  summer  months,  the  surface 
of  the  earth  is  covered  with  tussocks  of  fine,  nutritious  mountain  grass, 
and  furnish  ample  sustenance  for  sheep  for  eight  months  in  the  year. 
In  addition  to  the  wild  grasses,  herds  grass,  clover,  and  orchard  grass, 
with  slight  attention  to  manuring,  will  grow  well.  Wild  peas  also  fur- 
nish a  nutritious  herbage.  The  soil  can  easily  be  made  to  yield  suffi- 
cient supplies  for  winter  feeding,  by  sowing  in  stock  peas,  —  a  food  not 
only  healthful  for  sheep,  but  highly  relished  by  cattle. 

To  be  successful  in  sheep-raising  on  this  table-land,  the  breeder 
must  be  careful  to  build  shelters  for  protecting  his  flocks  from  the  mid- 
dle of  November  until  the  middle  of  March.  The  climate  is  very 
rigorous  in  winter ;  and  the  keen  northern  and  north-western  blasts 
will  speedily  impair  the  health  of  the  improved,  though  tender  breeds. 
The  native  sheep  are  very  healthy,  and  rarely  suffer  from  any  disease ; 


SHEEP   HUSBANDRY   IN   THE   SOUTH.  107 

though  they  are  not  profitable,  the  wool  being  coarse  and  short,  and 
the  carcass  light  and  lean.  This  arises,  however,  more  from  neglect 
than  local  cause.  It  should  never  be  forgotten  that  thrifty  flocks  may 
be  raised  wherever  industrious  men  and  good  breeders  live ;  and  that 
the  best  flocks  will  degenerate  where  inattention  and  neglect  are  prac- 
tised. 

The  advantages  offered  by  this  mountain  region  fbr  the  economical 
rearing  of  sheep  are :  — 

1.  The  cheapness  of  the  lands.     Lands  may  be  bought  at  almost  a 
nominal  price  on  the  Cumberland  Mountains.    Though  high  and  healthy, 
the  soil  in  comparison  with  that  of  the  valleys  is  poor  and  unproduc- 
tive.    The  price  for  wild,  highway-pasture  land  varies  from  50  cents 
to   $3  per  acre ;   depending  mainly  upon   nearness  to  railroads    and 
markets.     Care  should  be  taken,  though,  to  investigate  the  titles  thor- 
oughly ;  for  one  of  the  most  unwise  acts  of  our  past  legislation  was  the 
opening  of  a  land-office,  and  allowing  every  one  to  make  his  own  sur- 
veys, and  receive  a  grant  for  lands  based  upon  such  surveys.     Often- 
times it  happened  that  the  same  land  had  been  entered,  in  whole  or  in 
part,  by  others.     The  possession  of  a  land  grant  does  not  carry  with 
it  in  this  State  a  title ;  but  the  title  rests  with  the  oldest  grant,  assuming 
it  to  have  been  regularly  entered  at  first.     Let  strangers  beware  of 
purchasing  mountain  lands,  without  a  rigid  investigation  of  title.     I 
am  led  to  make  these  remarks  because  complaints  have  reached  this 
office   that   persons   have  been  swindled  in  purchasing  laud  grants. 
There  is  no  difficulty  about  securing  good  titles  to  valley  lands ;  but 
there  is  danger  that  a  person  may  buy  land  upon  the  mountain  with  a 
grant  from  the  State,  bearing  the  great  seal  of  authority,  and  have  no 
title. 

2.  The  second  advantage  these   mountain   lands   offer  for   sheep- 
raising  is  in  the  wide  range  of  pasturage.     The  open  woods  permit  the 
luxuriant  growth  of  nutritious  herbs  and  grasses  throughout  the  sum- 
mer, and  will  subsist  millions  of  sheep  for  eight  months  in  the  year, 
without  any  other  care  than  salting. 

3.  A  third  advantage  may  be  found  in  the  dryness  of  the  sandstone 
soil,  which  insures  exemption  from  many  of  the  diseases  fatal  to  sheep. 
No  foot-ail,  no  braxy,  no  impaired  organs  of  digestion,  no  blind  stag- 
gers, and  indeed  no  other  disease  than  old  age,  or  starvation  through 
want  of  care,  has  ever  attacked  them.     Nor  do  flies  annoy  or  vex 
flocks  as  they  do  in  the  lower  plains. 

There  are  also  some  disadvantages  attending  the  raising  of  sheep 
upon  this  mountain.     The  pasturage  is  so  extensive  that  they  often 


108  APPENDIX. 

stray  off  and  are  lost.  There  is  also  the  calycanthus,  that  on  some  of 
the  slopes  grows  vigorously,  bearing  seed  readily  eaten  by  sheep  in 
winter,  and  which  is  a  deadly  poison.  To  guard  against  this,  sheep 
should  be  driven  up  and  fed  before  the  rigor  of  winter  and  the  scarcity 
of  grass  compel  them  to  devour  such  fatal  food.  Another  drawback 
will  be  found  in  the  distance  from  market.  While  the  wool  may  be 
easily  conveyed  to  shipping  points  at  a  small  cost,  mutton  sheep  would 
suffer  much  in  flesh  by  being  driven  long  distances.  Of  all  this  region, 
embracing  more  than  3,000,000  acres,  less  than  500,000  acres  are  within 
easy  reach  of  railroads  or  navigable  streams. 

My  own  impression  is  that  the  merino  sheep,  if  properly  cared  for, 
would  prove  a  profitable  investment  on  these  mountain  lands.  One 
precaution  would  be  necessary ;  and  that  is  to  keep  the  bucks  from  the 
ewes  until  about  the  middle  of  November,  so  that  the  lambs  would 
come  after  the  rigorous  winter  weather  is  over. 


UNIVEESITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 
BERKELEY 


THIS  BOOK  IS  DUE  ON  THE  LAST  DATE 
STAMPED  BELOW 

Books  not  returned  on  time  are  subject  to  a  fine  of 
50c  per  volume  after  the  third  day  overdue,  increasing 
to  $1.00  per  volume  after  the  sixth  day.  Books  not  in 
demand  may  be  renewed  if  application  is  made  before 
expiration  of  loan  period. 


MAR  16  1918 


50m-7,'16 


yp    on  A QQ 
J  ^    £.UM-  /O 


